Pax and .fi remailers

Hal 74076.1041 at CompuServe.COM
Tue Dec 22 21:55:46 PST 1992


Upon more thought, I don't see a really good way to use the PAX
remailer in conjunction with our remailers based on the scripts of
Eric Hughes.  The PAX remailer can only be used to send messages to
those who have "registered" with the remailer to receive an anonymous
ID there.  So, for PAX to work with our remailers we would have to
register.  For example, my remailer at hal at alumni.caltech.edu would
have to register with PAX and receive an anonymous ID, like
"anon.100 at pax.tpa.com.au".

Then, to use a two-hop remailer consisting of first PAX and then mine,
you would prepare a message as usual for my remailer:

====================
::
Request-Remailing-To: dest

This is a message for two-hop anonymous remailing.
====================

Perhaps you would encrypt this using my remailer's public key, getting:

====================
::
Encrypted: PGP

-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
Version: 2.1

hEwCG6rHcT8LtDcBAfwLWYgWXpCoi7TjoeVttBYpk3KPbiYf9L9CCegfYlvj56RA
OFrijYag+jqNlHQXmO52bXL8PaNUowD7a2pFY80WpgAAAGt/RXNzaWkI/b3CkviB
eh/piaUDxgfPd4npcURHtUCEeh8bPpzVaI9qm6xZlxSaJif+CtFqyuaRezj+hcXR
YT9JOl93LAxQJITeYUlPXgkBEvyB4u3HjpCDSS5NETDcqd8rtBspzUvlcmqT1g==
=d356
-----END PGP MESSAGE-----
====================

You would then send this to anon.100 at pax.tpa.com.au.  (NOTE: Don't
try this - I haven't yet gotten an anonymous ID at PAX.)  PAX
would forward it to my remailer, unchanged, which would then decrypt
it and send it onward.  Oh, yes, PAX would also strip the .sig,
which is perhaps why you'd want to do this.

But for this to work, I have to publically announce that my remailer,
hal at alumni.caltech.edu, can be reached at PAX "anonymous" address
anon.100 at pax.tpa.com.au.  This seems a little strange, as the PAX
address is then no longer anonymous.  I have to tell everybody what
the address is in order for it to be useful.

So, the PAX remailer doesn't really add much anonymity, but it does
excise your .sig.  It's not clear that it's worth it just for that.

On a more positive note, the other remailer, in Finland, is much more
promising for our purposes.  It has a remailing capability similar
to ours.  You could send mail to: hal%alumni.caltech.edu at anon.penet.fi,
and it would forward the mail to hal at alumni.caltech.edu.  This is
similar functionality to a non-encrypting form of the remailers we
are operating, and so it can help confuse things.

Also, this remailer could be used in a chain of our remailers by
using an address of the proper form.  For example, mail sent to
the Rebma remailer, then to Finland, then to the Rosebud remailer, could be
done by putting, at the front of your message:

::
Request-Remailing-To: elee7h5%rosebud.ee.uh.edu at anon.penet.fi

::
Request-Remailing-To: <dest>

Then a blank line, then your message itself.  Mail it to remailer at rebma.mn.org.
I haven't tried this but it should work, theoretically.

Hal
74076.1041 at compuserve.com


Distribution:
  CYPHERPUNKS >INTERNET:CYPHERPUNKS at TOAD.COM







More information about the cypherpunks-legacy mailing list