Newsgroups: alt.privacy.anon-server From: shamrock@netcom.com (Lucky Green) Subject: The subtle danger of using Mixmaster Message-ID: <shamrock-2409951151310001@192.0.2.1> Sender: shamrock@netcom19.netcom.com Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) X-Newsreader: Yet Another NewsWatcher 2.0 Date: Sun, 24 Sep 1995 19:51:30 GMT Lines: 19

There are about twenty Mixmaster remailers. Reason to celebrate? Hardly. Though we have more remailers than ever, I doubt that the twenty or so Mixmasters are operated my more than six or seven people. I would not be surprised to find out that some folks are running several Mixmasters on the _same_ machine, using different IP addresses.

While the enthusiasm for increasing the number of remailers is understandable, the operation of more than one Mixmaster by the same person is downright dangerous, because it reduces the effective lenght of the remailer chain. The message that you sent through five remailers may have only been handled by two operators. When you thought that five people had to colaborate to trace your email, only two are in fact required to do so.

Comments?

-- -- Lucky Green <mailto:shamrock@netcom.com> PGP encrypted mail preferred.