The remailer details have always been one of the most persistent,
relevant, and interesting aspects of this group. I'm really pleased to
see e.g. Hal Finney's attempts to automate a testing process, and
others' interests in methods of increasing reliability and security.
Unfortunately, it seems to me the same problems keep popping up unresolved.
Here are a few brief ideas.
1. `dropping' messages
Here is an idea: if a remailer drops a message or forwards it
successfully it could broadcast a message to a group such as misc.test.
There are all kinds of problems with autoresponders replying to these
kinds of messages but I think anyone who has the audacity to run an
autoresponder despite no clear mandate to do so is asking for trouble
anyway. Regarding traffic analysis, see below.
Also, Miron Cuperman was running an anonymous pool mailing list, last I
heard email pool0-request(a)extropria.wimsey.com with `subscribe' in the
subject line to get on it. Is this still running? Is anybody playing
with this? What are people doing with this anyway?
Now, for some *really* radical ideas. If cypherpunk remailers were
truly impervious to traffic analysis then we wouldn't *care* if
detailed statistics on mail messages were broadcast to the world,
because correlations would be intractable to determine so it wouldn't matter.
So, I propose that remailers actually start posting to a list somewhere
*all* internal traffic. This will create an excellent incentive for
them to implement traffic-analysis-thwarting (TAT?) mechanisms. Of
course, the mechanisms should be implemented before they start
broadcasting this information!
The broadcasting of this information is like built-in accountability.
If people see trends they can notify operators of their weaknesses. It
actually *encourages* the development of traffic analysis and thereby
improved safeguards. Also, it helps us paint an excellent *overall*
picture of remailer use and increase their exposure to the `unwashed masses'.
BTW, I would like to see a list that keeps track of the professed
`logging' practices and historical reliability of the various remailers.
2. Embedded messages
I've been thinking about the whole idea of message transmission in
SMTP, and it strikes me as very sloppy. We have this system where
intermediate hosts can tack on junk at the beginning and ending of
messages (such as `Received' lines, overflow headers, etc.) without
violating any standards. I think this should change--an explicit
standard handling this modification should be in place and anyone that
doesn't adhere to it can be blamed for `violating the standard' and
maybe even cleaning up their act.
Here is one such proposed standard. I'd like to see what everyone
thinks. I proposed something similar a long time ago.
Here is the idea: when a message is submitted to a host, the host is
responsible for maintaining a very precise map of what the message
appeared as when it went `in', and what was added in the process,
`out'. Here is one such way to make this explicit:
Have a `x-message-format' line. The way this header works is that it
represents the structure of the message in lines. Each new remailer,
when it adds *anything* *anywhere* in the message is also responsible
for correctly updating the x-message-format line, under the following standard.
The line contains text tags, followed by a colon, followed by a number
of lines representing that field in the message. Also, the use of
paranthesis makes the idea of `embedding' explicit. Each level of
paranthesis represents a `wrapper'. A mailer may add any number of new
fields anywhere in a message and then `wrap' the whole thing in
parenthesis. Fields are separated by spaces. The fields collectively
name all lines in the message in sequential order.
For example, the first mailer might create a root x-message-format-line like:
x-message-format: (headers:4 body:10 signature:3)
Then passing through one intermediate remailers, we might get a
`recieved' status line added, at the *beginning*:
x-message-format: (recd:1 (headers:4 body:10 signature:3))
And some goofy Fidonet gateway may find it necessary to stick something on the end:
x-message-format: ((headers:4 body:10 signature:3) fidofooter:4)
Of course, under the standard it would make sense to have categories of
the tag specifications, so for example any tag that represents a header
would have something in its text like `header' so it could be identified.
We might even have text fields inside the embedded message routing
structure that identify the names, errors-to emails address, etc. of
the intermediate hosts.
The point is that with all this the recipient has a transparently clear
picture of what constitutes the original message and what was added as
intermediate fluff, which currently SMTP is frighteningly and
embarrassingly lax in identifying. The idea of the *original message*
vs. *intermediate fluff* is absolutely critical and we deserve
sophisticated protocols that preserve the distinction. (Gad, it's
amazing what remailers do to messages. They will mess with lines that
contain only hyphens or '>' quote any line that begins `From'. I find
all this highly atrocious.)
So, what does anyone think?
The problems I can see are in the proliferation of tags. Maybe a
central authority needed to regulate them to be sensible and unique (a
registry). Also, is it the case that some headers can get too large?
The solution I have for this is to break up the x-message-format line
into multiple lines:
x-message-format1:
x-message-format2:
where successive lines actually represent one level of nested parenthesis.
Note: I don't know if the inherent `sloppiness' in SMTP will ever be
successfully evaded given its widespread entrenchment. However, I
believe protocols superior to it in that regard are inevitable in their adoption.
