From: "otchayanie" <monad@tigger.jvnc.net>
Date: Wed, 27 Apr 94 15:45:50 PDT
To: "Arsen Ray Arachelian" <rarachel@prism.poly.edu>
Subject: Re: Faking hostnames and inconvenient anon IP
Message-ID: <monad.1117874401A@128.121.50.145>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Quoth Arsen Ray Arachelian <raachel@prism.poly.edu>:
>
>In that case one of us (who owns a machine directly plugged into the net)
>should set up an anon server that doesn't check for user/host names, or
>better yet, provide a bouncing off point for anonymous telnet...  Say
>something like you telnet to port 666 on toad.com, and then you're given
>an anonymous temporary id.  At that point, you are prompted with a menu for
>what to do... telnet to another site, ftp into another side, call 
>an IRC server from somewhere, etc.  All the anon server would have to do
>is bounce packets...   I think this idea came up before... an anon packet
>forwarding service of sorts...
>
>If a user goes through several of these, s/he is granted pretty decent
>anonimity...  Perhaps another play on this would work with encrypted
>packets?  Where each user who dials into one of these packet bouncers
>talks to it via a PGP like RSA and key-exchange system.
>
>All the IRC server will see is that someone named anon7 logged in from
>eminar.toad.com...
>

in actuality, the code for this exists, has existed for some time, and has
even seen some use. it is a simple telnet reflector that functions more or
less in the manner you are envisioning; the irc user simply directs the
client to the address and port of the 'anon server,' which grants the user
its own hostname and an incremented username starting with 'an001;' these
and subsequent packets are forwarded to an actual server nearby. the code
was written by all-time incorrigible irc hooligan Hendrix, who also brought
us the annoybots, tsunami floodbots, and countless other innovations without
which irc just wouldn't be the same. the anonirc.c code is available via
anon ftp at ftp.rahul.net /pub/jimi, which also houses countless other
quasi-legitimate utilities and patches.

the project of anonimity on irc seems to be a valuable one, notwithstanding
the legion of users whose baser traits are augmented by the prospect of
utter irresponsibility. the crytographic frontier on the irc is, for me at
least, perhaps much more desirable territory; and of course the two used in
sensible conjunction would be ideal. while there is a rudimentary form of
encryption built into the unix irc client software, i confess i have only
seen it used thoughtfully on one occasion, and sadly, it was to conceal the
intentions of parties involved in an 'op war.' on the lighter side, i have
recently seen a number of users invoking weak (or perhaps mock) encryption
of the form 'CLIPPER:<apparently random digits>:<garbled message>.' so
perhaps the interest is fomenting, parody can often turn trash into gold,
when well executed.

----------
monad@tigger.jvnc.net                            apologia pro mea vita          

"The infant's first step is its first step towards death." Kozma Prutkov