Subject: Your help request for the StarWars remailer Reply-To: Message-Id: <20040619112454.A2D24252B2@bespin.homelinux.net> Date: Sat, 19 Jun 2004 13:24:54 +0200 (CEST) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- This message is sent to you in response to an email that you sent to the StarWars remailer. This automated reply was trigged by the subject "remailer-help" contained in your email. If you did not send such an email, please ignore this message. This remailer is a free service that allows individuals including crime victims, domestic violence victims, persons in recovery, and others, such as those living under oppressive regimes, to communicate confidentially in a manner that ensures their privacy under even the most adverse conditions. This independent remailer uses the Mixmaster remailer software. It is highly recommended that you obtain a copy of the Mixmaster software to utilize this remailer. This particular remailer may offer other means of accessing the remailer service. If this remailer offers other means of accessing the remailer service, the means will be described later in this help file. However, only by using the Mixmaster client software will you assure the highest level of security against third-parties compromising your privacy. How to obtain the Mixmaster software: Mixmaster source code for FreeBSD, Linux, other variants of UNIX, and Win32: If your operating system is a UNIX derivative, simply download and compile the client from the source code available at http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/mixmaster/ Mixmaster clients binaries for Win32 (Windows 98, NT, 2000, XP) Win32 users may wish to try Jack B. Nymble, a graphical user interface client implementing the mixmaster protocol. Jack B. Nymble is developed independently of the main Mixmaster distribution. Please do not contact the Mixmaster development team or the Administrator of the StarWars remailer with questions about this software. You can obtain a copy of Jack B. Nymble from http://www.skuz.net/potatoware/jbn2/ For more information about Mixmaster or to contribute to the development of Mixmaster, please see the following URL's: Official Mixmaster Project Site: http://sourceforge.net/projects/mixmaster/ General Information about Remailers and Remailer "how-to" Guides: http://www.paracrypt.com/orange/index.php http://anon.efga.org/Remailers/ http://www.remailer.fragcity.co.uk/ Locations of some Worldwide Remailers http://riot.eu.org/anon/remap.html **** You can use PGP to encrypt messages sent to this remailer if you for some reason are unable to use the Mixmaster client software. However, while PGP will securely encrypt the content of a message that you are sending to the remailer, submitting messages to the remailer that are merely PGP encrypted without the use of the Mixmaster client software greatly increases the risk of third parties being able to determine the identity of the sender (you). This remailer primarily supports the ability to submit messages for remailing without requiring the Mixmaster client software for backwards compatibility with older remailer client software. If you are able to use the Mixmaster software with your operating system (chances are you can), it is highly recommended that you use the Mixmaster client software instead. See the earlier section in this help file on how to obtain a copy of the Mixmaster client software. If you cannot use the Mixmaster software, want to use an anonymous remailer, and are willing to accept reduced security, you can do the following: Send email with Subject: remailer-key to to obtain a copy of the remailer's PGP key. Then do the following: 1) create a file containing your message 2) insert a BLANK LINE as the first line of the file 3) Insert a "::" as the second line of the file 4) Insert "Anon-To: final_recipient@destination_domain.com" as the third line of the file. At this time, the file should look as follows: ================================================================== :: Anon-To: final_recipient@destination_domain.com This is some anonymized email. ================================================================== 5) Now encrypt the file with the PGP key of this remailer. Finally, email the encrypted file to as shown in the example below. The line "Encrypted: PGP" instructs the remailer to decrypt the message and process its contents. ================================================================== From: remailer_user@sender_domain.com To: mixmaster@tatooine.homelinux.net Subject: anonymous message :: Encrypted: PGP - -----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE----- Version: 2.6.3i owE1jMsNwjAUBH3gZMk9PClnUoBPUANpwElW2OBPZD8H0gd1UCP2gduuNDNfIcSH T4zCbQmtlbzGFM9T0jSD7QVvEzaPcUlBSSWHQclbnR9YWJNp5BFSLdR9CijF3NGx ybry/1Rsqn4la3a0JiIhLvnYGCu9HFtiC8oIxnlkeuIYe+EH =HgDq - -----END PGP MESSAGE----- ================================================================== Even though PGP encryption in itself is very secure, not using the Mixmaster client exposes some information to parties desiring to compromise your privacy. This information leakage permits what is known as "traffic analysis". For example, if someone receives anonymous messages soon after you sent encrypted messages to a remailer it is likely that you are the sender of those messages. To partially compensate for this information leak, you can instruct the remailer to delay your messages for some time or send the remailer empty messages to make such analysis harder: If you use the line "Null:" instead of "Anon-To:", the remailer will simply discard your message. You can add a "Latent-Time:" header to the remailer to retain your message for some time before forwarding it. "Latent-Time: +2:00" would delay the message for two hours. You can use a random delay by adding "r", for example "Latent-Time: +5:00r" would delay the message for up to five hours. For example: ================================================================== :: Anon-To: final_recipient@destination_domain.com Latent-Time: +2:00 This is some anonymized email. ================================================================== You can chain remailers by using another remailer to send the message to anonymously. For example, take the message ================================================================== :: Anon-To: mixmaster@tatooine.homelinux.net :: Encrypted: PGP - -----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE----- Version: 2.6.3i owE1jMsNwjAUBH3gZMk9PClnUoBPUANpwElW2OBPZD8H0gd1UCP2gduuNDNfIcSH T4zCbQmtlbzGFM9T0jSD7QVvEzaPcUlBSSWHQclbnR9YWJNp5BFSLdR9CijF3NGx ybry/1Rsqn4la3a0JiIhLvnYGCu9HFtiC8oIxnlkeuIYe+EH =HgDq - -----END PGP MESSAGE----- ================================================================== Next, encrypt the message with the PGP key of the StarWars remailer and send the twice-encrypted message to . Similar to a nested Russian matryoshka doll, containing increasingly smaller dolls inside the each outer doll, you can layer multiple encryption layers and remailer hops around your message. If this sounds confusing, just use the Mixmaster client software instead. If you send your messages through a chain of several independent remailers, it will be become increasingly difficult, though not necessarily impossible, to trace the anonymous message back to you. A vastly more secure solution is to use the Mixmaster client software to send your anonymous mail. Some remailers supporting PGP encrypted messages offer pseudonymous "nym" service that allow you to not only send emails privately, but also receive emails without enabling the sender to determine your recipient destination email address. For more information about such nym services, see the following URLs. http://lexx.shinn.net/nym/ http://riot.eu.org/anon/nym.html ***** Abuse Policy: Unfortunately, there will always be a very small percentage of individuals that choose to abuse the anonymity that this and similar systems worldwide afford to send otherwise unwelcome email. The StarWars remailer does not condone such messages, or their content, in any way. Just as the Post Office is unable to prevent abuse of the mail system as long as there are public mailboxes into which a person can drop a letter without including a return address, the StarWars remailer cannot preemptively prevent irresponsible individuals from using this system to send inappropriate messages. However, unlike the Post Office, this remailer enables you to assure that you will not be inconvenienced by users of this remailer in the future. To block the users of this remailer from sending email to your address, please send a message to containing the line DESTINATION-BLOCK anywhere in the body text of the email. You can simply reply to this message using your email program and send back this entire message for your current email address to be permanently blocked from users of the StarWars remailer. For additional information on this remailer's abuse policy, instructions on how to block more than one email address, and to reach the StarWars remailer operator, please send email to . Thank you for your interest in secure and private communications, - -- The StarWars remailer Administrator -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3i iQEVAwUBPCY69hwVp2fi8udBAQGN0Qf+PV0NtWEdhkvpLISfOL0tlfTC0z4jRZcx pjbDE4RAWy5igzVDizbBYceEKvGp6+f5QxMAYnBFjw27GMELOriPgIJuLm2Dl4LH G6PmNZvhP28qsaIiO/MjTsFvil+iNXWINUcGg0YXAMpsf+7l3UV+BbnmONUUD7aI hd7vlLPNYYJjjIo6awVzV+ZeskCLMQPEIoV1a3m6YEGFS0BDNI7L72cQAUVmp0kM B3ucUk3kXGalwjjrAzJfap9KbZIj7GWnT/B+bQGnO3ig2XQxHRGzr0jsabN6qa3W OPbrosT6H8Osg6CUCAHzXSmmb9UVulLW9A3Evf0G6o5IL/AIIA/s9g== =a4Uf -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -----BEGIN REMAILER DESCRIPTION $RemailerDescription{"StarWars"}{"0"}{"WWW_Nick"}="Obi-Wan Kenobi anonymous remailer"; $RemailerDescription{"StarWars"}{"0"}{"Admin"}="mailto:starwars-admin@starwars.homelinux.net"; $RemailerDescription{"StarWars"}{"0"}{"Abuse"}="mailto:starwars-admin@starwars.homelinux.net"; -----END REMAILER DESCRIPTION