Remailers FAQ
What is a remailer?
A remailer is a program that runs on a computer somewhere on the
Internet. It allows you to send electronic mail to a news group, or to
a person, without revealing your true name or email address to the
recipient. When you send mail to the remailer address, the remailer
takes your name and your address off of the mail header and forwards it
to its next destination. The recipient gets mail that has no evidence
of where it originally came from, at least not in the headers. [top]
How long will it take for my message to get to its recipient?
Your e-mail message can go through several systems
before it reaches its final destination. So it varies from the length
of the way and aslo from the type (type 1 of type 2) of remailer, but
usually no more than half a day, and sometimes quicker. But if its been
about a day and your message did not arrived, it's a good idea to try
sending your message again. [top]
Can I receive a reply from the recipient of my message?
Not automatically. The From: line of your message will give no
indication of who you are, and will not provide a means for your
recipient to contact you. If you put a return address in the body of
your message, your recipient can contact you that way. [top]
Are there many remailers?
Yes, there are dozens of popular remailers.
[top]
Are they free-of-charge ?
Not all of them. A number of services either charge user fees, or support themselves via advertisers.
[top]
What is better web interface or a remailer client program?
Using web interface is not as secure as using a remailer client on your
own system. Also don't forget that if you aren't using SSL to connect
to remailer, your submissions will be visible to anyone that can sniff
your session. So use SSL to connect to remailers if possible. [top]
Why would you use remailers?
Maybe you don't want people "spamming" or "flaming" your email address.
Maybe you're seeking employment via the Internet and you don't want to
jeopardize your present job. Possibly you want to place personal ads.
In short, there are many legitimate reasons why you, a law abiding
person, might use remailers. [top]
How does a remailer work?
It strips away real names and addresses, gives a new identity, and
forwards the message to a news group or a persona. This process
protects everyone's privacy. This process is tedious for a person but
easy for a computer. [top]
What is the difference between a "PSEUDO anonymous" and an "anonymous" remailer?
Most people use the expression "anonymous remailer" as short hand for
all types of remailers. This causes confusion. A "PSEUDO anonymous"
remailer is basically an account that you open with a remailer
operator. This means that the operator knows your real email address.
Your privacy is as good as the remailer operator's power and integrity
to protect your records. Truly ANONYMOUS remailers provide much more
privacy than PSEUDO anonymous remailers. However, in general, they are
much harder to use than their PSEUDO anonymous. [top]
Are the web-based email accounts remailers?
These email accounts can provide a measure of privacy, if you sign up
for them using an alias, pick good passcodes, and access your account
carefully. But generally these services are designed for convenience,
not privacy or security. [top]
How safe are remailers?
For most low-security tasks, such as responding to personal ads, PSEUDO
anonymous remailers with passcode protection are undoubtedly safer than
using real email addresses. But the person who runs your email system
might intercept your secret messages to and from the remailer. It's
possible that some intruders broke into the remailer (unbeknownst to
the remailer's administrator) and that they can read your messages at
will. If you use a United States based remailer, a U.S. judge could
subpoena the remailer's records. [top]
Which remailers are good? Reliable? Secure?
The "good" and "reliable" remailers are the ones that work for you and
have the feature set you need or want. The "secure" remailers are the
ones operated by those who do not monitor the traffic passing through
them and have good security policies in place on their networks and
machinery to prevent their remailer from being penetrated by
unauthorized parties and subsequently compromised. Since you can never
know for yourself how "secure" any one individual remailer is, you
should always use encrypted chains of remailers to send your messages. [top]
What is chaining?
Chaining is using more than one remailer to send your encrypted
message. Basically, you send a message to remailer A with instructions
to send it to remailer B, which in turn finds instructions to send it
to remailer C, and so on, until the final recipient receives the
message. The intention is to obfuscate the origin of the email and/or
(with the help of encryption) the content of the message body. At any
given point on it's route, such a message will reveal only where it
came from and where it is going. If the message was not chained (only
one remailer was used) then that remailer operator or a successful
traffic analyst can know the true source and destination of the
message.
[top]
Are there any weak points in the remailers chains ?
Yes. Since your message must enter the remailer network somewhere, that
first remailer operator can always know where the message is really
coming from. He knows as much about you as can be revealed from your
email headers. But if your message is chained to another remailer and
encrypted with that remailer's key, then the first remailer and anyone
snooping his traffic cannot read your message. [top]
What is a Mixmaster Remailer?
Also known as a Type II remailer, this kind of remailer accepts
messages in the Mixmaster format. It doesn't use a PGP key but instead
it uses it's own Mix key based on RSA and Triple-DES encryption.
Messages are sent through chains of Mixmaster remailers. Each remailer
removes one layer of encryption, and forwards the message. When the
final remailer
delivers the decrypted message to the recipient, it is impossible to
find out where it came from even if part of the remailer chain is
compromised. Mixmaster remailers improve on Cypherpunk remailers by
making traffic analysis much more difficult. It does this by making all
incoming and outgoing messages the same size (28.1kb) and by
re-ordering messages before delivery - so that traffic coming in cannot
be associated necessarily with traffic going out. [top]
What is a Cypherpunk Remailer?
Also referred to as a Type I, this is a remailer that accepts messages
encrypted with its publicly available PGP key. Keep in mind too that
there are currently only a few Cypherpunk (Type I) remailers that will
accept non-PGP messages and their numbers are dwindling. [top]
|
