Problems with remailer

[Edgar W. Swank]

Distribution:
    Hal           <74076.1041 at compuserve.com>
    Cypherpunks   <cypherpunks at toad.com>
 
Hal:
 
I tried to test your remailer, but didn't have any luck. I can see
that other people (Cassandra & Pollyanna among others) are using it.
 
This small (and free) system does not allow me to specify network
headers (except Subject), so I used the "::"  convention.  I tried
three configurations of sending something to myself on Nov 17, 1:08am.
As of my last session, Nov 19, 4:45pm, I had not received an echo from
any of the three.  Here is the record of the mailings.  Note the
sequence numbers are not part of the message.
----------------------------------------------------------------
To: Remailing Service <hal at alumni.caltech.edu>
Subject:  Remail Unincrypted
 
  1> ::
  2> Request-Remailing-To: edgar at spectrx.saigon.com (Edgar W. Swank)
  3>
  4> This is an unencrypted test message.
  5> /s
        (Queued for Internet delivery)
 
To: Remailing Service <hal at alumni.caltech.edu>
Subject: Remail Encrypted
c:\tlxd\spies7.msg  <Input to PGP>
::
Request-Remailing-To: edgar at spectrx.saigon.com (Edgar W. Swank)
 
This is an encrypted test message.
c:\tlxd\spies7.asc  <Output of PGP>
 
  1> ::
  2> Encrypted: PGP
  3>
  4> -----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
  5> Version: 2.0
  6>
  7> hEwCG6rHcT8LtDcBAf4ime6fkvJE3hKvET5lNeG7U51cFM5B9bCRuYdgDN8gXGef
  8> tXpamyWSXHDRvpb/PeebBdG/Gqxb571l54vqAO5opgAAAIepaWGSNzSfnMSOWV+a
  9> VFETSI7H7i2m3ZagT/XbgVqzfVUXkkqBYXKESlcsAiUWnF8tXGwYJ/KYUvHWW/ve
 10> qPvlbdYAoe+iMtR7asvPCEz+WxEmdIQqTxUPCT1tiIaaplsk5l7p80dW8NkArCH6
 11> BTowA85FQrI7gBUBevSs8hq62JUAs6GH5T8=
 12> =XUQk
 13> -----END PGP MESSAGE-----
 14>
 15> /s
        (Queued for Internet delivery)
 
To: Remailing Service <hal at alumni.caltech.edu>
Subject: Remail With Anon Return
 
  1> ::
  2> Encrypted: PGP
  3>
  4> -----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
  5> Version: 2.0
  6>
  7> hEwCG6rHcT8LtDcBAf0SgMh0C4raXWqjXytzsmpt2b8veBXZhUvez+ZI309w1Y8w
  8> oiYcPjGHhL6l7ad0IXuXFUgBwxAmHbzexSLVeKvgpgAAAGuiL3psLLLJfKeDGXjD
  9> hDK3KWoFGlzyzssiudBe+f5kv/1j4EnzkviyQgxCxFTYUd04Z6az1HWRWU7Fvanq
 10> KZarLLBgfe8eqzIa82FyOh6CMFqg2Ou4VkaTbQma8LQk4u+7JRNxKBMmy7TrTQ==
 11> =0mFO
 12> -----END PGP MESSAGE-----
 13>
 14> This is a message using anonymous return address.
 15> /s
        (Queued for Internet delivery)
----------------------------------------------------------------
Hope you can tell me where I went wrong, especially since you
have the convenience of the remailer secret key.
 
In one post, you said:
 
    You could post anonymously, using our current remailers, to this
    list or another list.
 
This implies you now have more than one remailer.  Where is (are) the
other one(s)?
 
I've since lost track of the details, but I recall reading about
a gateway from E-Mail to any Usenet newsgroup. Of course, with your
remailer, it's now possible to use that to anonymously post to any
usenet newsgroup.
 
Since I'm writing to you anyway, I'd be interested in knowing what
(if any) records are kept by the remailer, and for how long are they
retained. Where the forwarding address is encrypted, is the decryption
of same erased both in memory & on disk (overlay erased on disk) as
soon as the message is sent? Memory buffers of incoming net headers
(which aren't encrypted) and messages (which may not be encrypted)
also need to be erased promptly & not left lying around until reused.
 
Is it possible the remailer held up forwarding my messages waiting
for other messages to arrive with different destinations (to confuse
traffic analysis)?  To avoid long waits, you might want to send
out dummy messages to a variety of addresses when traffic is low.
I hereby volunteer my address to receive up to ten such messages
per day. Once there are enough remailers so that most messages are
being forwarded to another remailer, then all the dummy messages
can be sent to the other remailers.

--
edgar at spectrx.saigon.com (Edgar W. Swank)
SPECTROX SYSTEMS +1.408.252.1005  Silicon Valley, Ca