From: zane@genesis.mcs.com (Sameer)
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 93 18:04:25 PDT
To: Karl Barrus <elee9sf@Menudo.UH.EDU>
Subject: Re: REMAIL: problems
In-Reply-To: <199306281508.AA26337@Menudo.UH.EDU>
Message-ID: <m0oAU20-000MU8C@genesis.mcs.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


	I've been thinking a little bit about the problems with unreliable
remailers.

	Supposing that we can never rely on the reliability of all the
remailers in a given path (because of not just bugs in the software, but
political hassles) it would be good to figure out a mechanism by which
a problem can be noticed.

	For example: supposing that I made the following mail path

::
Request-Remailing-To: hh@soda.berkeley.edu

::
Request-Remailing-To: remail@tamsun.tamu.edu

::
Request-Remailing-To: hfinney@shell.portal.com

::
Request-Remailing-To: cypherpunks@toad.com

	Suppose that remail@tamsun.tamu.edu wasn't working. Maybe it would
be possible for the remailer to notice that the next address in the hop
is a remailer, and check to see whether the next remailer is working or
not. (Send a ping-message.. This would slow things down greatly, yes.)
	Then if the remailer isn't working, something can be done. (Maybe
figure out some way of telling the originator [through encrypted
return-paths] that a certain remailer isn't working)

	This idea (obviously) isn't fully thought out. There are some
glaring problems with the system in that it would end up destroying a
good deal of the anonymity in the system. It might be possible, however,
to modify this idea to make it workable.
	It is definitely likely, in my mind, that remailers will continue
to be unreliable as long as net-anonymity is a controversial topic.

--
| Sameer Parekh-zane@genesis.MCS.COM-PFA related mail to pfa@genesis.MCS.COM |
| Apprentice Philosopher, Writer, Physicist, Healer, Programmer, Lover, more |
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