From: mjr@netcom.com (Matthew Rapaport)
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 93 19:57:22 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Alias cascades
Message-ID: <9301090357.AA07830@netcom2.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


****** Hal <74076.1041@CompuServe.COM> ******

>I think the lesson is that this process of automatic alias assignment
>may not be the best way to handle things... look at all the problems
>Karl ran into.

If I understand Karl right, he got this cascade of aliases because he
tried to talk to HIMSELF through different accounts/aliases at alternate
ends of the chain. Since no one would want to do that (other than to
test things) normally, this wouldn't be a problem.

>I still lean towards the idea of a "constructed" anonymous address,
>where I decide ahead of time which remailers I'll use, and in what
>order.

But I already *do* control the order of use for MY mail, that means
stuff I send out and stuff people send to me in DIRECT reply to my
stuff. There is nothing to stop someone from sending to my id on pax say
through a first remailer of their own choice, provided they originate
the mail (i.e. a REPLY is not equivalent to ORIGINAL mail in this case).

As for picking my own alias, this sounds appealing but is actually much
weaker then a randomly assigned one. Besides that, it could be an
administrative nightmare for the sysadmins on the aliasing systems.

matthew rapaport     Philosopher/Programmer At Large      KD6KVH
           mjr@netcom.com     70371.255@compuserve.com