Re: Latency vs. Reordering (Was: Remailer ideas (Was: Re: Latency vs. Reordering))

[tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)]

Jim Dixon writes:


(quoting Hal Finney)

> > If this idea seems valid, it suggests that the real worth of a network of
> > remailers is to try to assure that there are at least some honest ones
> > in your path.  It's not to add security in terms of message mixing; a
> > single remailer seems to really provide all that you need.
> 
> Yes, in an ideal world.  Each additional remailer introduces another
> chance of being compromised.

No, I'm afraid you have this backwards. A remailer cannot introduce
a chance of increase the chance of being compromised. (I'm assuming
that nested encryption is used, as all "ideal mixes" should use this,
cf. Chaum. The bastardized version we play around with, in which
encryption is skipped, is entirely unsecure.)

Perhaps I am misunderstanding you (Jim) here, but in no conceivable
way can I imagine that "Each additional remailer introduces another
chance of being compromised." Perhaps each additional remailer can
increase the chance of not forwarding the mail properly--as might be
done in a denial of service attack--but this does not mean security is
compromised. 

The remailer chain as strong as strongest link point that Hal and
others have made.

> However, if you trust the operator and if this trust is guaranteed to be
> continued forever, the ideal number of remailers is one.

Since the trust in remailers in not unity, and since the addition of
remailers can only increase security and not decrease it, the ideal
number of remailers is greater than one.

Else, using the "trick" I described in my last post, simple establish
that one is a remailer and then stop bothering with other remailers.

(Not that I recommend this, for various reasons.)

--Tim May


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