From: Adam Back <aba@dcs.ex.ac.uk>
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 20:52:16 +0800
To: Ross.Anderson@cl.cam.ac.uk
Subject: Re: (eternity) Covert Superhighway - the missing component?
In-Reply-To: <E0xsPbf-0002vu-00@heaton.cl.cam.ac.uk>
Message-ID: <199801141241.MAA00398@server.eternity.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain




Ross Anderson <Ross.Anderson@cl.cam.ac.uk>
> Scratch Monkey proposes building an Eternity service using the Stego
> File System, provided an anonymous broadcast channel exists - it's
> assumed that alt.anonymous.messages will do the job.
> 
> I suspect that wide deployment of Eternity would lead to this group
> being closed down. We need a more robust anonymous broadcast
> channel. Let's call it the `Covert Superhighway'. How do we build it?

Some ideas:

- post to random newsgroups, use textual mimic functions, send
  decryption keys after the stegoed data has been distributed to
  disguise data until it is too late to affect distribution

- become a spammer, or employ some spammers.  Spammers use the hit and
  run approach with disposable accounts; with sufficient availability
  of accounts, and the economic incentive they seem to flourish in
  spite of intense displeasure of recipients.

- video signals: live porn shows, one on one "chat live to our model,
  she will do anything you ask, blah, blah" -- high volume, easy
  target for stego, plausible reasons for anonymity

- subliminal channels in the TCP/IP and IPSEC protocols.  Someone
  posted a reference for an implementation of some subliminal channels
  in the linux TCP/IP stack.

- VR gaming, VR chat rooms with audio, video; this could be a higher
  bandwidth version of IRC.  

- Subliminal channels in computer generated random numbers for
  multi-player internet based games.  (Death match doom with
  subliminal channels, or with audio, video, etc)

Not a very super-highway like subliminal network possibly... mostly
the internet is not up to real time VR, video chat, etc. for the
majority of users at present.  Many of the better applications for
subliminal channels are currently impractical.

When people can buy a T1 to their house for 2,000/yr instead of
20,000, we will stand a better chance.

Adam