Anomos: Censorship-Resistant anonymous (?) BitTorrent

[Eugen Leitl]

http://anomos.info/wp/2009/06/04/presenting-anomos/

FAQ

Posted on June 4, 2009 in Uncategorized by Rich

What is Anomos?

Anomos is a decentralized peer-to-peer file sharing system derived from BitTorrent which is capable of protecting its userbs identities by means of an advanced, planned mix network. Its purpose is twofold. In one way it is simply an intellectual exercise; we are computer scientists interested in encryption, the limits of anonymity, and the design of networks. In another sense it is a profound demonstration of individual liberty, a demand for freedom, privacy and anonymity on the Internet.

General Features

* File transfers through Anomos are anonymous. After being sent, packets are routed through a number of intermediary nodes before reaching their final destination. These intermediary nodes can only confirm that their neighbors are participating in the network, they cannot confirm that their neighbors are sharing or merely relaying information, nor can they determine what is being shared.
* Downloading with Anomos is decentralized b the downloader receives parts of the requested file from a number of different sources, similar to how BitTorrent functions.
* Connections within Anomos are End-To-End encrypted.
* Communication with the Tracker is also encrypted.

A more comprehensive technical overview is available here: http://anomos.info/wp/2008/06/02/what-is-anomos/

Is Anomos BitTorrent over Tor?

No. Tor is designed to protect against traffic-analysis attacks against anonymity by routing traffic through its fixed network. It is used primarily for web-surfing, although it can be used for other services, such as BitTorrent. However, this is damaging to the Tor network, which has a limited capacity, and the network operators often take deliberate steps to prevent BitTorrent traffic on their network.

Anomos is different. It is easier to think of Anomos as a variation of BitTorrent rather than a variation of Tor, although it does use the same principle of onion routing to establish links between peers. Unlike Tor, there is no single Anomos network, just as there is no single BitTorrent network. All the peers who connect to an Anomos tracker are used to relay traffic, not just a small collection of permanent relayers. All of the peers must connect to a single tracker, which maintains a model of the network and assigns pathways to download requested files.

How does Anomos compare to other anonymous peer-to-peer systems like GNUNet, Turtle, Six/Four and OneSwarm?

Those networks are all bFriend-to-friendb networks, rather than true peer-to-peer networks. This means that they take a very long time to make lots of connections to peers with the files, as the requests and connections have to propagate throughout the entire network, and this can make it very difficult to find files. It also requires that you have a number of other peers which you trust and can initially connect to.

Anomos is different, because it is a true peer-to-peer system. The advantage comes from the central tracker, which gives out multiple direct anonymous pathways to the file to be downloaded upon connection, without having to wait for the network to grow around it.

User Answered Questions

These questions and answers were kindly provided by people outside of the official Anomos staff.
Why yet another BitTorrent system?

BitTorrent as it is implemented today does not provide anonymity by design. Anomos includes anonymity in its design.

Why do I need anonymity?

So far in pre-internet stone age, all means of information collection have been anonymous:

* If you bought a book in a bookshop, you did not have to leave your name and address, not even if you may have been interested in the most controversial material.
* When you read an article in a newspaper, nobody but you knew what and when you read it.
* When you listened to radio, only you knew when, where and how long you listened to their program.
* When you watched TV, you personally were looking that show and only you and maybe your family knew .

What is different in internet times?

* The bookshop knows what youbre reading.
* The radio station knows you start to listen to John Doebs program from usually 6:00pm until 7:30pm and from 6am to 7am.
* The TV Station knows your interests better than you, and tries to sell you things accordingly.
* The newspaper knows the articles you read and how long they pulled your attention.
* Google knows you read that article and began investigation more about your findings.
* Your ISP knows everything.
* Your government knows what websites you visit, reads your email and listens to your phonecalls.

We donbt like this and neither should you.

Is Anomos compatible with BitTorrent?

No. Unfortunately, Anomos cannot magically make your BitTorrent downloads anonymous. However, if you are familiar with BitTorrent, there should be no difference to make Anomos work for you.

The Anomos client does aim to provide preliminary support for legacy BitTorrent files.

What about being anonymous from your ISP?

As all traffic is end-to-end encrypted, so neither your ISP, nor any intermediary nodes should be able to identify your traffic.

When will a stable/final Version of Anomos be released?

Anomos is an ongoing project. We hope there will never be a bfinalb version of Anomos. We are drawing rapidly nearer to releasing a public version, though, hopefully by early May 2009 at the latest. If youbre interested in trying it our early, pull sources from the git if youbre a linux user, or if youbre a windows user, join the #anomos channel on irc.freenode.org and ask.