Remailer

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A remailer is a pseudonymizing and / or anonymizing Internet service that accepts and forwards e-mail messages. The software depersonalizes the messages by removing e-mail headers that identify the original sender.

This makes it possible, for example, to post in a Usenet forum or to send someone an e-mail without the recipient or third party being able to find out the name or e-mail address of the sender. The inclusion of asymmetrical encryption methods may increase the security of the method.

variants

A distinction is made between type 0, type I and type II and type III remailers:

  1. Type 0, this is the Nym Remailer
  2. Type I, this is the Cypherpunk Remailer
  3. Type II, this is the Mixmaster Remailer
  4. Type III, this is Mixminion (still in alpha test)

This classification takes into account the increasing efficiency in terms of anonymization from type 0 to type III.

In general, it is a piece of software that works as a server . So-called hybrid remailers (also type I / type II hybrids) combine the capabilities of different types of remailers or give the operator greater freedom to determine the scope of functions.

Remailers receive normally drafted messages from the sender's e-mail program or from specialized client software in the form of data packets that have already been suitably formatted. The remailer can be installed on the same computer, on a computer in the local area network ( LAN ), or on a computer on the Internet .

Attacks against remailers

Remailers are constantly exposed to attacks. Many operators of such services, driven by sheer idealism, finally gave up at the end of a large-scale campaign. It will continue to be the case that mass mailings and mass postings that are routed via remailers - but also smear campaigns with the only clear sender address of the remailer - endanger their continued existence. Mainly to prevent misunderstandings because of their motives, the users of the remailer services are required to adhere to the same principles of conduct that apply to most other public Internet offers with the possibility of participation. The publication of such rules by the remailer operator is often the only possible form of self-protection.

The abuse rules of a typical remailer follow as an example:

" I consider the following to be improper use of these anonymous remailers and will take steps against anyone who is guilty of any of the above:
  • Sending messages that are primarily intended to annoy or annoy you.
  • Using the remailer for any illegal purpose. Due to the global nature of the internet, it is the sole responsibility of the original sender to find out what is legally acceptable.
  • Unsolicited commercial advertising messages (SPAM).
  • Complaints to the senders of unsolicited advertising or mass mail. "

Like conventional mail, remailers cannot completely prevent the sending of unacceptable material. However, the remailer operators have the option of excluding known sender or recipient addresses from participating in the procedure.

Systematic sabotage

Observations by operators and users of remailers show that even with the most reliable software it is not possible to guarantee the trouble-free transmission of messages. What was commonly attributed to deficiencies in the design of the protocols, programming errors or, in general, to imponderables in the use of the Internet, apparently has its deeper causes in the systematic approach of an unknown attacker against the remailer network. Often unspoken, there is always the involvement of state, US-American agencies in the room. That this is perhaps more than a groundless new conspiracy theory arises from the situation-dependent predictability of the loss or the extraordinary delay of certain e-mails.

The observation results in new technical requirements for the next generation of remailers. At least some of them should be implemented in the new Mixminion software.

See also

literature

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