Fax Authentication Cyphers

[Nikov]

We get a number of messages from central command. Most are legitimate, ordinary, routine messages. Occasionally, however, we get really crazy faxes telling us that all loyalty implanted officers must collect dead babies for Miranda Trasen's diamond jubilee. We also get the occasional message telling us the fax machine was hacked. It would be nice if there was some way to confirm authentic orders from Centcomm, in-character.

Q. But wait! I want make fake announcements as a Malf AI! Won't the authentication cipher make this impossible?

A. NO. With investment in advanced cryptographic algorithms, an AI can discover the day's cipher table and so add FURTHER credibility to outrageous orders in such a way that ENSURES loyalty implanted officers MUST accept the orders as authentic!

I'm not entirely certain what arrangement should be made, but here's a simple one.

In the Captain's Office, a document spawns containing ten or twenty lines of randomly generated characters.

 

1	HA3BK
2	KZ52K
3	PZE14

 

... And so on. A precise duplicate of the document spawns in Central Command, allowing admins, duty officers and CCIA to refer to the document as well.

"CCIA, this is the Captain of the NSS Exodus, please authenticate Block 2 to begin docking proceedures."

"NSS Exodus, CCIA, Block 2 is KZ52K."

"CCIA, confirmed, you are cleared to dock."

"Dear CCIA, we received an announcement requesting us to, quote, gas the liggers, unquote. Please fax back Block 3 to authenticate your orders."

"Dear Exodus, Block 3 is PZE14, you have your orders, Deus vult."

"Hey, this is CCIA Amnesty Lund, back from the zombie dead, send all your money in a metal crate on an escape pod."

"Gee Lund, can you confirm Block 1 of the cipher?"

"Yeah sure, I stole it a few minutes ago and photocopied it. Its HA3BK. Now hurry up with my loot NT scum."

Of course, its up to human intelligence to only use the cipher blocks once, or else smart people on the radio waves can start impersonating higher authority. However, we do add a mechanism to confirm credentials over faxes, command radios, even announcements. Or to fake authentication, in which case, characters have enough reason to presume its authentic even if players recognize the order is sketchy as fuck.

[Synnono]

ENSURES loyalty implanted officers MUST accept the orders as authentic!

My experience thus far has been that Command Staff will lean towards insisting that morally-sketchy orders are false regardless of the proof, as long as there is some sort of potential for doubt. We recently played a round in which a fax came through as stamped by the quantum relay and signed by CCIA Daniel Bay. While they were sketchy as hell and probably indeed fake, since it was an AI Malfunction round, with the evidence at the time of delivery it would have been very difficult to prove.

The CE refused the orders on moral grounds, and since he wasn't implanted it made plenty of sense. However, the HoS and canonically-implanted Captain and HoP characters all ended up not carrying them out, on the suspicion that the relay might be compromised. The indication that the relay could be compromised came well after the orders arrived, and everyone just sort of seemed to delay until they had an excuse to refuse them. One of them even resigned and committed suicide rather than do the job the implant would have required them to do (and I'm not sure that in itself would have been permitted by the implant under some interpretations).

While loyalty implants and what they should do are an entirely different and ongoing issue, I think the urge that players seem to get to not play 'the bad guys' is going to unfortunately win out over faithful loyalty roleplay much of the time. I'm not sure a cipher will fix that.

Edit: Despite the mini-rant written above, to get back on-topic again: I do like the idea of some sort of cipher codebook for this purpose. Having some way to verify transmissions is common sense to me, and would help clarify when people SHOULD be feeling compelled to accept contentious orders, even if they continue not to in reality.

[Nikov]

Yeah, I'm a bit familiar with that round. Just a touch.

The basis of Wesreidau's resistance to obeying the orders was the very suspect series of announcements. There was an announcement with a major error cutting out most of the text, but beginning the orders to "fire up the ovens", so to speak. Okay, people make mistakes.

There was then an announcement, apparently intended to hang a lampshade on the previous formatting error, stating the quantum relay had been hacked and the hacker disconnected.

Then there was a repeat of the first announcement with the text corrected, telling us to fire up the ovens.

Wait, WHAT?

A message came in with dubiously moral orders, badly garbled. We then get a message that the quantum relay was hijacked. So the dubiously moral orders were part of a quantum relay hijack. Then we got the dubiously moral orders a second time.

This is clearly suspicious. How do I know the second copy of these orders aren't a more successful hack attempt? I then messaged Central asking them to clarify, and provide the only form of authentication I could think of, the nuke code. If the DO faxed me the nuke code and the bomb took the code, then I knew the DO was authentic.

Instead I was treated to "Its legit you have your orders, signed a guy you never heard of". Encrypted on the same quantum relay that I know was compromised by a hacker once and was now suspect for fake communications. Anyone else who's taken a CompTIA Security+ test or watched a few good nuclear missile sub movies knows the plot by now.

The whole situation was a shitshow, but unavoidable. The lack of any form of authentication for documents between Central and Command, beyond the compromised quantum relay, meant it was going for trouble. Furthermore it turns out the DO was sending faxes to back up the AI's "gimmick", which while useful for making a round of Malf AI better than average, doesn't make any sense in character. Except, of course, if the DO was sending messages to simulate the AI fabricating communication with Central. Which was tipped to Command in the announcement of a hacker.

However, if a table of ciphers was standard issue for Captains and DOs, any suspicious order could be checked against the cipher, and loyalty implanted persons can say, "Well, we may have had a hack attempt earlier today, but this message checks the cipher, and that satisfies authentication. I may be right that this is a fake message, but the CCIA will know I checked the cipher, so the moral weight of these actions lie on whoever stuck this idiot implant in me. Fire up the ovens."

And that was where I was trying to get, and managed to start moving, resisting other player's calls to kill the AI for its "ion law" which was clearly metagaming, when Juan began putting forward the exact same logic the staff bwoinked me out of. And with him loyalty implanted as well, arguing for someone else to do exactly what I didn't want to do for the reasons we both agree are completely legit could only lead to dragging Juan into the same bwoink hell I just left.

So I resigned, appointed no successor, and shot myself; deliberately creating a power struggle between Hanira, Juan and Roadman that would be won by Juan and Roadman who would then champion the position Wesreidau always held; the orders are fake. Meanwhile Hanira wouldn't be morally burdened to carry out the ridiculous orders without the loyalty implant to console herself at night.

But, hur dur metagaming nobody can fake a signature in SS13's mechanics so the DO who's signature you've never seen is obviously real.

Just...

Yeah. We need a mechanism to authenticate documents so nonsense like this doesn't have to happen. And of course, we can then tie that mechanism into antag roles. The day a traitor can get a PDA cartridge that hacks the quantum entanglement and turns them into the CCIA desk is the day Sol declares war on Moghes and Nanotrasen fires up the gas chambers, if the traitor can get his eyes on the cipher sheet without being detected.

[coolbc2000]

Yeah, I'm a bit familiar with that round. Just a touch.

The basis of Wesreidau's resistance to obeying the orders was the very suspect series of announcements. There was an announcement with a major error cutting out most of the text, but beginning the orders to "fire up the ovens", so to speak. Okay, people make mistakes.

There was then an announcement, apparently intended to hang a lampshade on the previous formatting error, stating the quantum relay had been hacked and the hacker disconnected.

Then there was a repeat of the first announcement with the text corrected, telling us to fire up the ovens.

Wait, WHAT?

A message came in with dubiously moral orders, badly garbled. We then get a message that the quantum relay was hijacked. So the dubiously moral orders were part of a quantum relay hijack. Then we got the dubiously moral orders a second time.

This is clearly suspicious. How do I know the second copy of these orders aren't a more successful hack attempt? I then messaged Central asking them to clarify, and provide the only form of authentication I could think of, the nuke code. If the DO faxed me the nuke code and the bomb took the code, then I knew the DO was authentic.

Instead I was treated to "Its legit you have your orders, signed a guy you never heard of". Encrypted on the same quantum relay that I know was compromised by a hacker once and was now suspect for fake communications. Anyone else who's taken a CompTIA Security+ test or watched a few good nuclear missile sub movies knows the plot by now.

The whole situation was a shitshow, but unavoidable. The lack of any form of authentication for documents between Central and Command, beyond the compromised quantum relay, meant it was going for trouble. Furthermore it turns out the DO was sending faxes to back up the AI's "gimmick", which while useful for making a round of Malf AI better than average, doesn't make any sense in character. Except, of course, if the DO was sending messages to simulate the AI fabricating communication with Central. Which was tipped to Command in the announcement of a hacker.

However, if a table of ciphers was standard issue for Captains and DOs, any suspicious order could be checked against the cipher, and loyalty implanted persons can say, "Well, we may have had a hack attempt earlier today, but this message checks the cipher, and that satisfies authentication. I may be right that this is a fake message, but the CCIA will know I checked the cipher, so the moral weight of these actions lie on whoever stuck this idiot implant in me. Fire up the ovens."

And that was where I was trying to get, and managed to start moving, resisting other player's calls to kill the AI for its "ion law" which was clearly metagaming, when Juan began putting forward the exact same logic the staff bwoinked me out of. And with him loyalty implanted as well, arguing for someone else to do exactly what I didn't want to do for the reasons we both agree are completely legit could only lead to dragging Juan into the same bwoink hell I just left.

So I resigned, appointed no successor, and shot myself; deliberately creating a power struggle between Hanira, Juan and Roadman that would be won by Juan and Roadman who would then champion the position Wesreidau always held; the orders are fake. Meanwhile Hanira wouldn't be morally burdened to carry out the ridiculous orders without the loyalty implant to console herself at night.

But, hur dur metagaming nobody can fake a signature in SS13's mechanics so the DO who's signature you've never seen is obviously real.

Just...

Yeah. We need a mechanism to authenticate documents so nonsense like this doesn't have to happen. And of course, we can then tie that mechanism into antag roles. The day a traitor can get a PDA cartridge that hacks the quantum entanglement and turns them into the CCIA desk is the day Sol declares war on Moghes and Nanotrasen fires up the gas chambers, if the traitor can get his eyes on the cipher sheet without being detected.

 

St-Sta-Stamps?

[Synnono]

St-Sta-Stamps?

 

For the incident in question, the device (and even the person) that stamps the orders was under suspicion. A stamp would not have cleared up much in this case, and I believe the spirit of the suggestion is to provide additional means to verify transmissions in cases like this one.

 

that round.

I think what I got hung up on during the round was my personal concept of a burden of proof, in regards to the orders. If it were so easy to declare central's orders 'possibly' fake and therefore unacceptable and contrary to NanoTrasen's best interests, nothing corporate and evil would ever get done even with implanted personnel. My personal interpretation, and the stance Stefanie took, was that until the orders are confirmed to be false, they need to be assumed true.

Yes, it would have been an impossible burden of proof in that particular roundtype, without a suggestion such as this being implemented. I was of the mind that having Command obey (or at least fight each other on whether to) was more to the antagonist's plan and the development of the story in the round. Being subverted by a scenario or antagonist's action is one of the best excuses we get to potentially break our own characters for sake of storytelling, and I am typically eager to give in to it.

Even though it's a common scenario to encounter in our antag rounds, the notion of a relay-stamped and CCIA-signed order (from a known agent, that at least some of us have seen before) being faked strikes me as remote. While it would be extremely concerning to learn that the relay was attacked by a hacker, I wasn't convinced it established the falsity of the orders as transmitted. And with that in mind, I wasn't convinced someone with a chip in her head telling her to obey the orders would have enough reason to overcome that. We were given a deadline, and there was only so much to be done in terms of delay.

Pinning it on the AI seemed like a logical stretch, given that its nonstandard law (as visible to the crew) was to obey NanoTrasen above all else. Again, concerning, but an abnormally loyal AI doesn't cast further doubt on the orders. If anything, it could even have 'verified' them itself if we took the laws in good faith and it decided to roleplay that angle.

[Nikov]

I don't recall pinning it on the AI.

Stamps impossible to fake by a hacker So... cut the stamp off one fax, tape it to another fax, and there we go?

[Synnono]

Ah, you weren't doing the pinning. Other folks seemed to be hollering about it.

Anyway...short answer, yes, code books are neat. While people might call them redundant mechanically, and whether or not situations like these should be clarified at all for the benefit of uncertain Rev, Mutiny and Malf rounds is another discussion, I like them as a roleplay device.

[LordFowl]

Recall that suggestion threads are for the discussion of the merit of an idea, not lengthy multi-post dissections of a round, especially when the discussion of such a round becomes irrelevant to the suggestion.

[Nikov]

Well, the round is an example of when the suggestion would have been useful. Synno said, " I think the urge that players seem to get to not play 'the bad guys' is going to unfortunately win out over faithful loyalty roleplay much of the time. I'm not sure a cipher will fix that. " And I explained how her example would be helped by the cipher table by adding context. Probably too much, but with the subject broached, I wanted the record straightened.

Anyone against table ciphers?