Date: 6 Mar 2006 07:23:57 -0000 From: Help Message <nobody@nym.alias.net> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Instructions for using nym.alias.net Message-ID: <20060306072357.4294.qmail@nym.alias.net>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
INSTRUCTIONS FOR NYM.ALIAS.NET
$Revision: 1.77 $
TRANSLATIONS OF THIS DOCUMENT
Unter http://www.iks-jena.de/mitarb/lutz/anon/n.a.n.help.html
findet sich dieser Text in deutscher Sprache.
Zagladajac do
http://www.hyperreal.art.pl/cypher/remailer/nym.html>hyperreal
a znajdziecie polskojezyczne opracowania dotyczace
pseudonimow.
ADDITIONAL HELP
If you need help for problems which probably aren't bugs in
the server software, please direct your questions to the
newsgroup alt.privacy.anon-server or to the maintainer of the
client software you are using (if appropriate).
NOTICE For the very latest version of this file, finger or send mail to
<help@nym.alias.net>. An HTML version of this file is
available by fingering or sending mail to <help-
html@nym.alias.net>. The version of this file on the
nym.alias.net web page is sometimes a few days older than the
version available directly from nym.alias.net.
PGP 5.0 Nym.alias.net does not support PGP 5. It is recommended that you
use PGP 2.6.2 (or a more recent version of PGP 2) with
nym.alias.net, though PGP 5.0 might work in compatibility
mode. Nym.alias.net will not support PGP 5 until a stable,
free, legal (in the US) version is available in source form.
INTRODUCTION
The nym.alias.net server allows you to send and receive E-mail
pseudonymously through a username of your choice on nym.alias.net. If,
for instance, you choose username <yournym@nym.alias.net>, you will be
able to send and receive E-mail at that address, and even get fingered
at that address.
The system is designed to prevent anyone, even the administrators of
nym.alias.net, from finding out the real person behind any mail alias.
If you use this service properly, an adversary will have to compromise
multiple remailers operated by different people in order to find out
your real identity.
For each mail alias or "nym" (short for pseudonym) on nym.alias.net, the
server has on file a PGP public key, a reply block, and a few
configuration parameters. The PGP public key is used to authenticate
both configuration requests for your nym and outgoing messages you wish
to send from your nym.alias.net address. Such messages should be sent to
nym.alias.net anonymously, to avoid any connection between your real E-
mail address and your pseudonym. The PGP key can also be used to encrypt
any mail received for <yournym@nym.alias.net> before that mail is
forwarded to you through the remailer network.
The reply block contains instructions for sending mail to your real E-
mail address (or to a newsgroup such as alt.anonymous.messages if you
want your mail delivered there). These instructions are successively
encrypted for a series of so-called Type-1 remailers in such a way that
each remailer can only see the identity of the next hop. To send you an
E-mail message (after optionally encrypting it with your nym's PGP key),
the server will prepend your reply-block to that message and feed the
result directly to the Type-1 remailer <remail@anon.lcs.mit.edu>. [Note
that this remailer is reserved for use by nym.alias.net aliases and
people debugging their reply-blocks, so you shouldn't see it listed in
any of the standard remailer lists.]
Thus, mail you send to nym.alias.net arrives anonymously through the
remailer network. Mail you receive from nym.alias.net leaves the server
with an encrypted reply block, and can be sent either directly to you or
to a message pool such as the newsgroup alt.anonymous.messages. When
used properly, therefore, nym.alias.net provides the convenience of an
ordinary E-mail address with a strong assurance that your true identity
will remain a secret.
CLIENT SOFTWARE
This document describes the gory details of the E-mail message interface
to nym.alias.net. While it is possible to create and decode all your nym
messages manually, it is far easier to use client software which
automates the process. The primary design goal of nym.alias.net was to
provide the highest degree of privacy possible. This required a great
deal of complexity in the message formats, complexity far better handled
by client software than humans.
If you use a unix system, there is a program called premail which
creates and manages nym.alias.net pseudonyms for you. For more
information on premail, see
ftp://utopia.hacktic.nl/pub/replay/pub/remailer/premail. The
nym.alias.net support in premail was contributed by the author of
nym.alias.net, so if you report nym.alias.net-specific problems in
premail you can CC <admin@nym.alias.net>.
If you use a DOS/Windows system, you can use a program called Potato to
create nyms, decrypt incoming mail and send outgoing mail from your nym.
See http://www.bigfoot.com/~potatoware for more information or to
download Potato.
Another DOS/Windows program for managing nyms is called EasyNym, and is
available from http://home.clara.net/j.davies/easynym/. Still another,
DOS/Windows program for managing nyms is called Private Idaho. See
http://www.eskimo.com/~joelm/pi.html for more information on Private
Idaho. A newer version of Private Idaho (recommended) is available from
http://home.sn.no/~balchen/igloo/pidaho/.
Please do not contact <admin@nym.alias.net> for help with Private Idaho
or Potato, as the administrators of nym.alias.net do not use either
software package or have access to the hardware and operating systems
necessary to try them. If you have problems with these software
packages, try asking for help in the newsgroup alt.privacy.anon-server.
In addition, there are some unofficial nym.alias.net/PI instructions at
http://www.dnai.com/~wussery/pgp.html may be of use, too.
SETTING UP A MAIL ALIAS
To create a new alias on nym.alias.net, you will need to generate a PGP
key for that alias, create a reply block for receiving mail sent to that
alias, and finally send both of these to <config@nym.alias.net> in a
configuration message.
This process is somewhat complicated, and can easily go wrong. For this
reason it is recommended that you use one of the programs described in
the section on "CLIENT SOFTWARE" if you can. If you do create an alias
manually and you run into problems while setting things up, skip to the
section on "PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS" at the end to see if you are making
a common mistake.
An alternate, unofficial, and perhaps less technically daunting
description of setting up a pseudonym can be found at
http://www.stack.nl/~galactus/remailers/nym.html.
GENERATING A PGP KEY FOR YOUR NYM
To generate a new PGP public/private key pair for use with your nym, run
the command `pgp -kg'. PGP will ask you to enter a user ID for your
public key. What you choose for a user ID depends on how you intend to
use your nym's PGP public key. There are two approaches you can take:
1. Publish your nym's key. If you want to sign messages directly with your
nym's PGP key and have others encrypt mail with that key, you should
choose a PGP user ID that contains your nym.alias.net E-mail address
in angle brackets. For instance, an ID like this:
A Test User <yournym@nym.alias.net>
If you do this, you will be able to submit your key to the PGP key
servers and even make it available via finger at nym.alias.net (see
the +fingerkey Nym-command below). Be aware, however, that
publishing your nym's PGP key may put your privacy at risk. PGP does
not protect the identities or fingerprints of keys on your private
key ring; only the keys themselves are protected by a passphrase. If
your nym's PGP key is publicly available, anyone with access to your
secring.pgp file (or a backup of it) will be able to figure out if
that public key belongs to you.
Thus, you should only publish your nym's PGP key if your secring.pgp
file is secure, or if you have software such as premail (finger
premail-info@nym.alias.net) that will encrypt entire PGP keyrings
for a pseudonym account.
2. Keep the public key secret. Alternatively, you can prevent your PGP key
from being traceable to your nym account. For this approach, you
should pick a user ID that is not very descriptive and gives no
indication of either your real E-mail address or your nym address.
Though PGP will not allow a null user ID, you can choose a user ID
which is only a space, or something seemingly unimportant like `test
key'. Do not sign your PGP key if you want to keep it secret. Do not
submit it to any key servers, give it out to people, or use it to
sign messages that aren't also sent to and encrypted for
<config@nym.alias.net> or <send@nym.alias.net>.
Note that even if you don't publish your nym's PGP key, you can have
the nym.alias.net server sign your outgoing mail with its own PGP
key. This can be used to guard against simple mail forgeries.
Obviously, however, it is preferable to use your own PGP key if you
can do so safely.
Whichever approach you choose, make sure you never use your nym public
key for any non-nym related purposes. Your nym secret key should
probably have a different passphrase from your regular PGP key to help
prevent you from using it in the wrong context. You may also wish to put
a line like:
MYNAME = <you@your.email.address>
in the file $HOME/.pgp/config.txt (which you can create if it does not
already exist). This explicitly tells PGP to use your regular PGP key
rather than your nym key by default.
Once you have a PGP key for your pseudonym, you can extract it to a
file, for instance by executing these commands from your shell:
pgp -fkxa "nym key ID" > tmpfile
On Unix systems, you may wish to make sure tmpfile cannot be read by any
other users. For this you can run the command `umask 077' first.
Here and in the rest of this document, "nym key ID" is the user ID you
chose for the PGP key you generated, or some unique substring of that
key. If you chose option one above (publishing your nym key), then you
can just use yournym@nym.alias.net as the nym key ID. Otherwise, you
will need to use whatever user ID you did choose. Note that if the user
ID you type contains any spaces, you will need to surround the whole
thing with double quotes, as shown above. (You can surround it with
double quotes anyway--it won't hurt anything.)
CREATING A REPLY BLOCK
Another explanation of how to create reply blocks is available on the
help page of the now defunct alpha.c2.org remailer:
http://www.well.com/user/abacard/alpha.html. Note that alpha.c2.org did
not run the same software as nym.alias.net, so only the description of
reply blocks will be relevant on this web page, not any other
description of how the service worked.
To create a reply block, first choose some passphrases for shared-key,
conventional encryption with "pgp -c". Suppose you want your message
encrypted first with your nym's public key, then with shared key
"passphrase_b", then with shared key "passphrase_a". Create a remailer
message like this:
::
Anon-To: you@your.email.address
Latent-Time: +0:00
Encrypt-Key: passphrase_a
**
Here "Latent-Time: +0:00" will prevent any delay. You can and should use
something longer or omit the Latent-Time header if you want more
security. Note that if for passphrase_a you choose a passphrase with a
space character in it, some remailers may require you to surround the
passphrase with quotes (though other remailers may not understand the
quotes).
You will need to encrypt the above message with a remailer's PGP public
key. Note that the remailers used in this example do not exist any more.
They are here only as examples. You can get an up to date list of
remailers and their public keys from
http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~raph/remailer-list.html, or by fingering
remailer-list@kiwi.cs.berkeley.edu. On this list, only remailers that
have all three of the "cpunk", "pgp", and "ek" properties should be used
for reply blocks. In addition, make sure the remailers you chose are
listed in the statistics section lower down on the page (some of the
remailers listed in the top section are no longer functional). You can
add the PGP keys of all the remailers to your PGP public key ring by
running:
finger pgpkeys@kiwi.cs.berkeley.edu | pgp -fka
Once you have selected a remailer, for example
<remailer@utopia.hacktic.nl>, and have added that remailer's key to your
PGP public keyring, encrypt the above message with that remailer's key.
If the above were stored in a file rblock1, for instance, you would
encrypt the message with the command:
pgp -eat rblock1 remailer@utopia.hacktic.nl
To yield a file called rblock1.asc with cyphertext like this:
-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
Version: 2.6.2
hIwC/nqSW1QDQfUBBACknZMV93wFS2CH0orlgslmEm+alhjI1eKwbbTTmeRWC5Rg
/S3vZw+95ZuCZfqxKE0XrgZXzOEwfoyBcpVvf9Pb9D19TqEMTmmL/Jpl1xcxmbJ2
OGsHpQ/TxpazBCVhdBmPblj5wWvwfG1+ZKpIkQ5hiLJhryQM/TUDarEscs3zdaYA
AAB5231aMcQ74AKoDZizABMF3Tw+olV4mm4jVo9cMn2B3Rj2XBFl4pV9VL3h0ZQB
cPY/ytBRyZPugr0NpLgjO+q6mEjCcgQrxpYQ+1PvFPdDx1GmJ5ogZqW+AVHsNqAp
vRoiG8ZhXs4r3E8liFsNtMMf6CUAsdV2ZoX1Hw==
=Bla3
-----END PGP MESSAGE-----
Prepend to this the following header:
::
Encrypted: PGP
Finally add another set of remailer commands to send the above
cyphertext to the remailer for which you just encrypted--
remailer@utopia.hacktic.nl in this example. The result should look like
this:
::
Anon-To: remailer@utopia.hacktic.nl
Latent-Time: +0:00
Encrypt-Key: passphrase_b
::
Encrypted: PGP
-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
Version: 2.6.2
hIwC/nqSW1QDQfUBBACknZMV93wFS2CH0orlgslmEm+alhjI1eKwbbTTmeRWC5Rg
/S3vZw+95ZuCZfqxKE0XrgZXzOEwfoyBcpVvf9Pb9D19TqEMTmmL/Jpl1xcxmbJ2
OGsHpQ/TxpazBCVhdBmPblj5wWvwfG1+ZKpIkQ5hiLJhryQM/TUDarEscs3zdaYA
AAB5231aMcQ74AKoDZizABMF3Tw+olV4mm4jVo9cMn2B3Rj2XBFl4pV9VL3h0ZQB
cPY/ytBRyZPugr0NpLgjO+q6mEjCcgQrxpYQ+1PvFPdDx1GmJ5ogZqW+AVHsNqAp
vRoiG8ZhXs4r3E8liFsNtMMf6CUAsdV2ZoX1Hw==
=Bla3
-----END PGP MESSAGE-----
**
Note two things about this message. First, there must be a blank line
before the second `::'. Second, you must add `**' to the end of your
message. `Encrypt-Key:' will cause everything below the `**' to be
encrypted. If you don't include it, remailers will either fail to
encrypt your mail or even discard it.
For greater security, you should now repeat this process some number of
times so that mail to your pseudonym travels through multiple remailers.
Pick another remailer from the list. Encrypt the entire above message
from and including the first `::' up to and including the `**', and add
a new set of headers for sending to the second remailer you have just
picked. The result will look just like the above message, only with a
larger PGP portion and different `Anon-To:' and `Encrypt-Key:' headers.
For instance, if you chose the remailer <cpunk@remail.ecafe.org>, your
reply block might now look like this:
::
Anon-To: cpunk@remail.ecafe.org
Latent-Time: +0:00
Encrypt-Key: passphrase_c
::
Encrypted: PGP
-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
Version: 2.6.2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=Bla3
-----END PGP MESSAGE-----
**
The last remailer you encrypt for will be the first remailer your mail
goes through. The last `Encrypt-Key:' header will therefore be the first
key with which your message is encrypted, and the last with which you
will need to decrypt received mail. With this example reply block, you
would need decrypt received mail first with "passphrase_a", then
"passphrase_b", then "passphrase_c", and finally with your nym's private
key.
SENDING IN A NYM-CREATION REQUEST
Once you have a PGP key and reply block for your nym, you must send a
configuration request to <config@nym.alias.net> to create the nym. A
creation request contains four things: The pseudonym you wish to use, a
"create" command, your nym's public key, and the reply block for your
nym. The reply-block must always come last in your mail message. Suppose
you wanted to choose the alias <yournym@nym.alias.net>. If you wanted
outgoing mail from your nym to have From: lines like this:
From: A Test User <yournym@nym.alias.net>
And you wanted people who fingered your nym to see:
Mail Alias: yournym Name: A Test User
PGP Public-Key:
-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: 2.6.2
mQCNAzGf6A8AAAEEAPknqWEUA8U4+l5TFkD5Fj0COten6bbIe5bBb/1MvI+w6mFl
z06CPb2K/Z1fzjT48ZyxwYR+S3jU3Z96JEFRl99HYh3lTIUiBHW/XtwyefF0y61x
qYkNuUpSFh9BDBFM7N3uVvaNbzLiFnqCpZLm5ZIfrLcla3qUgkTBtHVi58fRAAUR
tDhsY3MgbWl4bWFzdGVyIGFkbWluaXN0cmF0b3IgPG1peC1hZG1pbkBhbm9uLmxj
cy5taXQuZWRxPokAlQMFEDGf6ClEwbR1YufH0QEBX60D/jZ5MFRFIFA1VxTPD5Zj
Xw2bvqJqFvlwLD5SSHCVfe/ka6ALuxZGFKD/pHpUAkfv1hWqAYsJpi0cf8HSdi23
bh5dUeLJnHHHDmd9d55MuNYI6WTi+2YoaiJOZT3C70oOuzVXuELZ+nZwV20yxe8y
4M3b0Xjt9kq2upbCNuHZmQP+
=jIEc
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
You could a create message like this:
Config:
From: yournym
Nym-Commands: create +acksend +fingerkey name="A Test User"
Public-Key:
-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: 2.6.2
mQCNAzGf6A8AAAEEAPknqWEUA8U4+l5TFkD5Fj0COten6bbIe5bBb/1MvI+w6mFl
z06CPb2K/Z1fzjT48ZyxwYR+S3jU3Z96JEFRl99HYh3lTIUiBHW/XtwyefF0y61x
qYkNuUpSFh9BDBFM7N3uVvaNbzLiFnqCpZLm5ZIfrLcla3qUgkTBtHVi58fRAAUR
tDhsY3MgbWl4bWFzdGVyIGFkbWluaXN0cmF0b3IgPG1peC1hZG1pbkBhbm9uLmxj
cy5taXQuZWRxPokAlQMFEDGf6ClEwbR1YufH0QEBX60D/jZ5MFRFIFA1VxTPD5Zj
Xw2bvqJqFvlwLD5SSHCVfe/ka6ALuxZGFKD/pHpUAkfv1hWqAYsJpi0cf8HSdi23
bh5dUeLJnHHHDmd9d55MuNYI6WTi+2YoaiJOZT3C70oOuzVXuELZ+nZwV20yxe8y
4M3b0Xjt9kq2upbCNuHZmQP+
=jIEc
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Reply-Block:
::
Anon-To: remailer@utopia.hacktic.nl
Latent-Time: +0:00
Encrypt-Key: passphrase_b
::
Encrypted: PGP
-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
Version: 2.6.2
hIwC/nqSW1QDQfUBBACknZMV93wFS2CH0orlgslmEm+alhjI1eKwbbTTmeRWC5Rg
/S3vZw+95ZuCZfqxKE0XrgZXzOEwfoyBcpVvf9Pb9D19TqEMTmmL/Jpl1xcxmbJ2
OGsHpQ/TxpazBCVhdBmPblj5wWvwfG1+ZKpIkQ5hiLJhryQM/TUDarEscs3zdaYA
AAB5231aMcQ74AKoDZizABMF3Tw+olV4mm4jVo9cMn2B3Rj2XBFl4pV9VL3h0ZQB
cPY/ytBRyZPugr0NpLgjO+q6mEjCcgQrxpYQ+1PvFPdDx1GmJ5ogZqW+AVHsNqAp
vRoiG8ZhXs4r3E8liFsNtMMf6CUAsdV2ZoX1Hw==
=Bla3
-----END PGP MESSAGE-----
**
Note that the first line of this message was `Config:'. Any message sent
to config@nym.alias.net will be silently discarded if the first line is
not `Config:'!
Note that the `From:' line just contains the name "yournym", and nothing
else. Do not put angle brackets or anything else on your From line.
(Though as a special case, `From: yournym@nym.alias.net' will work as
long as it is not surrounded by angle brackets.)
Note also that your PGP key will not be visible via finger unless the
key user ID contains your nym E-mail address in angle-brackets. You can
also prevent your public key from being available via finger by omitting
the `+fingerkey' from the `Nym-Commands:' line.
The above message must then be encrypted with the nym.alias.net public
key, and signed by your nym's new private key. The nym.alias.net public
key is listed here, and is also available by fingering or sending mail
to <remailer-key@nym.alias.net>. You can run
finger remailer-key@nym.alias.net | pgp -fka
to add this key to your public keyring. You might then run `pgp -kvc
nym.alias.net' and verify that your copy of the public key has
fingerprint `B6 41 A7 85 4E A8 C7 6D DD 02 18 4E 4A A9 84 E3'.
-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: 2.6.2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=ekCY
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
When you have the nym.alias.net public key, you can encrypt and sign
your configuration request with the command:
pgp -seat file config@nym.alias.net -u "nym key ID".
Once you have produced a PGP encrypted and signed message, mail it to
<config@nym.alias.net> through some anonymous remailers. If the name you
chose is available, this will create your mail alias. You can send mail
to or finger <list@nym.alias.net> to get a list of pseudonyms already in
use.
If your request is successful, you will get mail through your reply
block acknowledging successful completion. In this acknowledgment, you
may also be asked to confirm your reply block by sending mail to a
particular confirmation address. This two step process in necessary at
times to cut back on the number of nyms with bad reply blocks which are
left for dead. A new account will be deleted if the reply block has not
been confirmed in one week. Note that if you receive an acknowledgment
which does not ask for confirmation, your mail alias will already be
functional.
SENDING MAIL FROM YOUR PSEUDONYM
Once you have created a mail alias, you will automatically receive mail
sent to that alias at nym.alias.net (encrypted first with the public key
you mailed it, then with any Encrypt-Keys you specified in your reply
block). To send mail from that alias, simply create a mail message,
encrypt it with the nym.alias.net public key, sign it with your nym key,
and mail it to <send@nym.alias.net>. Thus, for example, create a file
with (substituting the name you chose for "yournym"):
From: yournym
To: mail2news@anon.lcs.mit.edu
Newsgroups: alt.test
Subject: ignore this nym test
just a test
Note once againt that the `From:' line just contains the name "yournym",
and nothing else. The contents of the From line in outgoing mail will be
set by the pseudonym server, based on your account name and what you set
with the `name=' `Nym-Command'. Do not put angle brackets around yournym
or include anything else on the From line. (Though as a special case,
`From: yournym@nym.alias.net' is also acceptable, as long as it is not
surrounded by angle brackets.)
If this file is called testpost, encrypt and sign the file by running:
pgp -seat testpost send@nym.alias.net -u "nym key ID"
This will create a file called testkey.asc, which you can then mail
(through other remailers) to <send@nym.alias.net> to post the above test
message to the newsgroup alt.test.
If you used the `+signsend' Nym-Command when creating your nym, any mail
you send through <send@nym.alias.net> will be PGP signed and dated by
the nym.alias.net private key to certify its authenticity. If you do not
wish your mail to be signed, or if you have published your alias's
public key and wish to sign messages yourself with that key, you can
disable this default signing by sending a -signsend configuration
command as described below.
Regardless of your nym's configuration settings, you can also enable or
disable both signing and acknowledgment of outgoing mail on a per-
message basis. Do so by including in your encrypted and signed E-mail
message a `Nym-Commands:' header with one or two of the +signsend, -
signsend, +acksend, or -acksend keywords.
Ordinarily the recipients of mail you send will be determined by the
`To:', `Cc:', and `Bcc:' headers of the message, which have the usual
behavior. However, occasionally you may wish to specify a list of
recipients explicitly. This may be useful, for instance, if you wanted
to PGP-encrypt a message for some recipients but not others. In such a
case, you would need to mail two copies of the message, one encrypted
and one not. However, you might still want the `To:' and `Cc:' headers
to reflect the full list of recipients.
You can explicitly specify the full list of recipients by listing them
in a `Hidden-To:' header of your E-mail message. If a `Hidden-To:'
header is present in mail you send, that header will be removed and mail
will be sent to the users it lists regardless of any other headers in
the mail message.
A NOTE ON POSTING FOLLOWUP MESSAGES TO USENET
In order to post a followup article to Usenet and have it appear in a
thread, you must set the `Subject:' and `References:' headers of your
message correctly.
The subject of your message should be the same as the article to which
you are replying, unless you are replying to the first message in a
thread, in which case you should prepend "Re: " to the original subject.
To build a references header, copy the references header of the article
to which you are replying, and append that article's Message-ID. If you
are replying to the first article of a thread, it won't have a
references header. In that case just use the article's Message-ID as
your references header. Be sure to leave a space between Message-IDs in
your references header.
For example, if replying to a message which includes these headers:
Subject: Re: anonymous remailers
References: <5dfqlm$m50@basement.replay.com>
Message-ID: <5dko56$1lv$1@news02.deltanet.com>
your reply should contain these headers:
Subject: Re: anonymous remailers
References: <5dfqlm$m50@basement.replay.com>
<5dko56$1lv$1@news02.deltanet.com>
[Note that an indented line in a message header indicates a continuation
of the previous line.] If replying to the first message in a thread,
with these headers:
Subject: Help with P.G.P
Message-ID: <5e96gi$opv@job.acay.com.au>
your reply should contain these headers:
Subject: Re: Help with P.G.P
References: <5e96gi$opv@job.acay.com.au>
The references header can be trimmed to include only IDs from messages
that you have quoted from or are replying to.
CHANGING OR DELETING YOUR MAIL ALIAS
To change either your public key, your reply block, or the parameters of
your alias, you can simply send another message to
<config@nym.alias.net> similar to the one you used to create your nym.
However, when modifying an existing nym, you can omit any fields you
don't want to change. Thus, you can send a message which contains "Nym-
Commands" but no Public-Key or Reply-Block, or one which contains only a
new Reply-Block. Of course, do not include "Nym-Commands: create" in a
configuration message for an existing nym as your modification request
will then fail.
Once again, the first line of the configuration message you send must be
`Config:', and the message will need to be both signed and encrypted
with
pgp -seat message config@nym.alias.net -u "nym key ID"
as described above for sending mail. As an example, the following
message, mailed to <config@nym.alias.net>, would set the reply block for
<yournym@nym.alias.net>:
Config:
From: yournym
Reply-Block:
::
Anon-To: remailer@utopia.hacktic.nl
Latent-Time: +0:00
Encrypt-Key: passphrase_b
::
Encrypted: PGP
-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
Version: 2.6.2
hIwC/nqSW1QDQfUBBACknZMV93wFS2CH0orlgslmEm+alhjI1eKwbbTTmeRWC5Rg
/S3vZw+95ZuCZfqxKE0XrgZXzOEwfoyBcpVvf9Pb9D19TqEMTmmL/Jpl1xcxmbJ2
OGsHpQ/TxpazBCVhdBmPblj5wWvwfG1+ZKpIkQ5hiLJhryQM/TUDarEscs3zdaYA
AAB5231aMcQ74AKoDZizABMF3Tw+olV4mm4jVo9cMn2B3Rj2XBFl4pV9VL3h0ZQB
cPY/ytBRyZPugr0NpLgjO+q6mEjCcgQrxpYQ+1PvFPdDx1GmJ5ogZqW+AVHsNqAp
vRoiG8ZhXs4r3E8liFsNtMMf6CUAsdV2ZoX1Hw==
=Bla3
-----END PGP MESSAGE-----
**
After changing your reply block, you will receive an acknowledgment
through the new reply block. This confirmation may ask you to confirm
your reply block, in which case you must reply to the acknowledgment
message before your new reply block is put in place.
To delete your alias entirely, send encrypted and signed mail with
simply the lines:
Config:
From: yournym
Nym-Commands: delete
(substituting your real alias name for yournym). After deleting your
alias, you should receive PGP-signed mail explicitly acknowledging the
deletion of that alias. An acknowledgment simply confirming generic
successful completion of your request does not indicate that your alias
has been deleted. You can also verify deletion of your nym by retrieving
a list of all nyms through <list@nym.alias.net>.
You can give several commands using the "Nym-Commands:" header in a
message to <config@nym.alias.net>. You can place several of these
commands in a single Nym-Commands header, separated by spaces, or you
can can put multiple "Nym-Commands:" headers in the same message. Valid
commands are:
+acksend/-acksend
Enable/disable an automatic acknowledgment each time a message is
successfully remailed for your alias through <send@nym.alias.net>.
This configuration option can be overridden on a per-message basis
by a `Nym-Commands:' header in an outgoing mail message.
+signsend/-signsend
Enable/disable automatic PGP signing of any outgoing mail you send
through the remailer. If you disable this, anyone can forge mail
from your nym very easily (particularly since the sendmail program
running on nym.alias.net does not add Received: headers to all
mail). If you have decided to publish the public key of your nym,
however, you will want to sign all outgoing messages with your nym's
public key (that is sign them a second time inside the message--
<send@nym.alias.net> will always reject a message unless it can
strip off a valid signature around the whole thing).
Having a nym.alias.net signature around another signature can
prevent mail readers from verifying the inside signature, so you
should choose the -signsend option if you want to sign all messages
yourself. (See the section on "GENERATING A PGP KEY FOR YOUR NYM"
for a note on the dangers of publishing your nym's PGP key.) This
configuration option can be overridden on a per-message basis by a
`Nym-Commands:' header in an outgoing mail message.
+cryptrecv/-cryptrecv
Enable/disable automatic encryption with your nym's public key of
messages received for your alias. Disabling public-key encryption
will reduce your privacy. However, it may also allow you to decode
received mail with client software designed for the older
alpha.c2.org-style pseudonym servers. Note that even when +cryptrecv
is enabled, you still should use shared-key encryption between
remailer hops to prevent your mail from being traced. See the
section on "SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS" below for more details.
+fixedsize/-fixedsize
When you send the +fixedsize Nym-Command, all messages you receive
will be split and/or padded to exactly the same size (roughly 10K).
This padding will take place outside the public key encryption, and
so will only be useful if you also use shared-key encryption. If you
do used shared-key encryption, however, (and you really should),
having all your messages be the same size will make it significantly
harder for anyone to do traffic analysis on mail to your nym.
+disable/-disable
One of the most effective forms of attack on a pseudonymous remailer
such as this is to flood the system with messages for a particular
destination. Moreover, because this alias software does not know a
message's final destination, it is possible that some joker could
point an alias at itself (maybe even using two reply-blocks to
create exponentially increasing levels of traffic). To protect
against this, if you send or receive more than about 10 Megabytes of
mail in one day, your alias will be disabled and further mail to you
it will bounce. You will receive mail notifying you of the situation
if this happens to you. At this point, you can re-enable your alias
by sending a message with `Nym-Commands: -disable' to
<config@nym.alias.net>.
+fingerkey/-fingerkey
Allow people to obtain your nym's PGP public key by fingering your
E-mail address. The Key ID on your PGP public key must contain your
nym's full E-mail address in angle brackets in order to be given out
through finger. Thus, a Key ID of "Test User
<yournym@nym.alias.net>" would be visible by fingering
yournym@nym.alias.net, but a key ID of just "yournym@nym.alias.net"
would not be. See the section on "GENERATING A PGP KEY FOR YOUR NYM"
below for a discussion of the security implications of publishing
your nym's public key.
name="Your Alias Name"
Typically E-mail `From:' lines contain a user's full name in
addition to his/her E-mail address or account name. To set up a name
to be printed in all your outgoing messages, like this:
From: Your Alias Name <yournym@nym.alias.net>
and to have that full name appear when your nym is fingered, you
should send the corresponding `name=' Nym-Command in a configuration
message. Note that the outer quotes are necessary even if your name
does not contain any white space. If your full name name actually
contains any quote or backslash characters, you must precede them
with a backslash, as in, for instance:
Nym-Commands: name="Billy \"the kid\" Smith"
To delete your full name so that outgoing mail only shows your alias
address and finger shows a full name of '???', send the command
name="".
create/create?
One of these two commands must be given when creating a new alias.
The create command will fail if a nym with the chosen name already
exists. The create? command will create a new nym, but can also
update an existing nym if the configuration message is signed by the
nym's previous private key.
delete
This command deletes your alias and wipes your reply block. As
described above, you should receive PGP-signed mail explicitly
acknowledging the deletion of your alias. An acknowledgment simply
confirming generic "successful execution" of your request does not
indicate that your alias has been deleted. Note the message will not
be PGP-encrypted if you have selected -cryptrecv, but in that case
encryption with the proper shared keys should provide some assurance
of authenticity.
+nobcc/-nobcc
When set to +nobcc, your nym will not receive any blind carbon
copies of mail messages. When you have selected +nobcc, any E-mail
sent to your pseudonym will bounce if it does not display your E-
mail address in a To, Cc, Resent-To, or Resent-Cc header. Aparently-
To headers are ignored for the purpose of the nobcc option--mail
will bounce even if you are listed in an Apparently-To header. While
blind carbon copies can be a legitimate and useful mechanism, most
so-called SPAM messages are sent as blind carbon copies. Thus,
+nobcc may reduce the number of SPAM messages you receive at the
possible expense bouncing some legitimate blind carbon copies. -
nobcc undoes the effect of a previous +nobcc command, and allows the
reception of blind carbon copies again. Note: You will not be able
to subscibe to any mailing lists if you select +nobcc.
Default values for the Nym-Commands are:
-acksend -signsend +cryptrecv -fixedsize -disable
-fingerkey name="" -nobcc
REPLAY
The remailer keeps a replay cache, and will not accept the same message
twice unless each copy has been separately signed. Thus, it is safe to
send multiple copies of outgoing E-mail messages through very long
remailer chains if you are worried about one copy not getting through.
Whether one or more copies actually make it through, only one copy will
go out.
One side effect of this is, however, that if you PGP sign a test message
and mail it in multiple times, it will only work the first time.
Note that signatures are only considered valid for a week. Thus, if mail
comes to send@nym.alias.net more than a week after you signed it, that
mail will be dropped.
MULTIPLE REPLY BLOCKS
Sometimes anonymous remailers can be unreliable, and you would like to
receive two copies of all your messages through two independent remailer
chains. Alternatively, perhaps you want to send one copy of each E-mail
message you receive to the bit bucket through a long series of anonymous
remailers. You can assign multiple reply blocks to your nym by prefixing
each with "Reply-Block:" at the end of a message to
<config@nym.alias.net>. For example, the following message to
<config@nym.alias.net>:
Config:
From: yournym
Reply-Block:
::
Anon-To: nobody@some.remailer.machine
Latent-Time: +0:00
Encrypt-Key: key1
**
Reply-Block:
::
Anon-To: you@your.email.address
Latent-Time: +1:00r
Encrypt-Key: key2
**
Will setup your alias to send one copy of each message you receive to
<nobody@some.remailer.machine> immediately, and to send a second copy to
<you@your.email.address> after up to one hour of random delay. Of
course, in order for this to be useful, you should use more complex
reply-blocks which chain through multiple remailers.
It may also make traffic analysis more difficult if you don't always use
the same remailer path. You can assign a probability to a reply block by
adding "x=probability" to the `Reply-Block:' line (where 'x' can be any
single letter variable name). For example, consider the following reply-
block:
Reply-Block: p=0.75
::
Anon-To: nobody@some.remailer.machine
Latent-Time: +0:00
Encrypt-Key: key1
**
Reply-Block: q=0.5
::
Anon-To: you@through.one.remailer
Latent-Time: +1:00r
Encrypt-Key: key2
**
Reply-Block: q=0.5
::
Anon-To: you@through.another.remailer
Latent-Time: +1:00r
Encrypt-Key: key3
**
3/4 of the time, a copy of a message you receive will immediately be
mailed to <nobody@some.remailer.machine>. After some random delay (up to
an hour), your message will be mailed either to
<you@through.one.remailer> or to <you@through.another.remailer>.
Multiple reply-blocks with the same probability variable are mutually
exclusive. Thus since the q blocks are "q=0.5" and "q=0.5", and since
0.5 + 0.5 = 1.0, you are guaranteed to get a copy of all your mail.
Generally speaking, you will probably want all the weights associated
with a particular variable to add up to 1.0 unless the reply-block is
just for cover traffic. Bizarre behavior may occur if your probabilities
add up to more than one--use different probability letters if you want
to receive multiple copies of mail.
While the idea of using many different reply-blocks with small
probabilities may seem appealing for defeating traffic analysis, keep in
mind that each reply block is traceable back to you. Suppose you have 10
reply blocks for your nym, each with probability 0.1. If those reply
blocks become compromised, only one of the 10 will have to be uncovered
to find out your real identity.
SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
If you care about the secrecy of your identity, then the only truly
secure way of of protecting it is by pointing all your reply blocks to
usenet newsgroups and using a news server that does not log. See the
section on the section on "REPLY BLOCKS POINTING TO NEWSGROUPS" for
instructions on doing this.
KEYRINGS AND PUBLIC KEYS
The most important thing to realize about the privacy of your messages
is that anyone can determine your nym's PGP public key ID from looking
at an encrypted message, and anyone get the key IDs of your private keys
from your private key ring without needing a passphrase. That means if
you don't conventionally super-encrypt mail (with `Encrypt-Key:'
headers), an observer on the network or at a remailer may be able to
determine which public key corresponds to which nym, and use this to
track messages. If you redirect your mail to news group
alt.anonymous.messages without conventionally encrypting it, observers
will be able to determine your nym's public key ID and observe how much
mail you are getting.
For this reason, you should conventionally encrypt your mail in addition
to public-key encrypting it. If you only want to use conventional
encryption for received mail, you can disable RSA encryption by sending
signed/encrypted mail with 'Nym-Commands: -cryptrecv' to
<config@nym.alias.net>. There is a large benefit to using public-key
encryption, however. If you only use conventional encryption and your
reply-block is compromised, previously recorded messages to you will be
able to be decrypted. With RSA-encrypted messages, there is no way for
anyone but you to read your mail once it has left nym.alias.net.
With the `+signsend' option, nym.alias.net will sign all messages you
send with its PGP key (adding a disclaimer at the end of the message).
This is primarily to prevent simple mail forgery which is rendered even
simpler by the fact that the sendmail on nym.alias.net doesn't keep
logs. If you care about the authenticity of messages sent through your
nym, however, you should probably publish its PGP key, set the `-
signsend' Nym-Command configuration option, and PGP-sign all your
outgoing messages yourself.
Be aware, however, that the identity of a key on your PGP private key
ring is stored in cleartext (even though the key itself is protected by
a passphrase). Thus, if you publish your nym's public key, anyone who
can gain access to your PGP secret keyring (or a backup tape containing
it) will find out the identity of your nym, even if that person does not
know your passphrase! For this rather unfortunate reason, you are faced
with a tradeoff between authenticity and secrecy.
One solution is to use software that keeps your nym's PGP keys on
separate keyrings, and encrypts the entire keyrings. Premail is one
software package that supports this. Send mail to or finger <premail-
info@nym.alias.net> for more information on using premail with
nym.alias.net.
REPLY BLOCKS POINTING TO NEWSGROUPS
Reply blocks offer you strong privacy by preventing any single remailer
operator from finding out the identity of a pseudonym. Nonetheless, if
an adversary manages to compromise all remailers in your reply block, he
will learn your true identity. Moreover, a strongly enough motivated
adversary could even operate several remailers himself, or eavesdrop on
communication between remailers and analyze traffic patterns and message
sizes to try to track you down. An essay describing some of the
vulnerabilities of Type-1 remailers can be found at
http://www.obscura.com/~loki/remailer/remailer-essay.html.
If you need the very highest level of security, you should completely
dissociate your identity from your pseudonym's reply block. Do this by
forwarding your nym mail to a newsgroup rather than to your own E-mail
address. Of course, retrieving messages from a newsgroup will be
considerably more difficult than simply receiving mail, particularly as
nym client software does not currently support newsgroups. Moreover, you
may loose mail if you don't check for news often enough, as most news
servers expire articles after a few days to a week.
If do you decide to forward your nym mail to a newsgroup, you should use
alt.anonymous.messages, a group which exists precisely to carry reply
messages to anonymous users. To set up a reply block pointing to this
group, you must change the innermost portion of the reply block. Recall
that one begins a standard reply block like this:
::
Anon-To: you@your.email.address
Latent-Time: +0:00
Encrypt-Key: passphrase_a
A reply block that posts to usenet should start like this:
::
Anon-To: mail2news@anon.lcs.mit.edu
Latent-Time: +0:00
Encrypt-Key: passphrase_a
##
Subject: some sort of subject line is required
Newsgroups: alt.anonymous.messages
[The `##' marks tell remailers to paste headers into a mail message. The
Newsgroups and Subject headers are required for news postings.] The rest
of the procedure for creating the reply block is identical.
Note that while sending your mail to a newsgroup makes it virtually
impossible to track you down from your reply block, you should keep in
mind that news servers usually log which newsgroups and how many
articles you read. Thus, someone with a pretty good idea of who you are
may actually have an easier time tracking you down if you use
alt.anonymous.messages than if you don't. Much depends on the
particulars of the news server you use.
YOUR MAIL TO NYM.ALIAS.NET
If you need high security you should also be careful with messages you
send to <config@nym.alias.net>, <send@nym.alias.net>, and
<confirm@nym.alias.net>. Though nym.alias.net does not keep mail logs,
the machine from which you send mail may very well do so. Morever, you
shouldn't be relying exclusively on nym.alias.net for your privacy. Even
if the machine is secure, someone may be eavesdropping on its network
traffic. Thus, avoid sending E-mail directly to the config and send
addresses. Send your mail through anonymous remailers instead.
You can send mail to nym.alias.net through the same Type-1 remailers you
use to create your reply blocks. However, a second, stronger, category
of remailers known as Type-2 or mixmaster remailers ofters higher
security. Type-2 remailers may be worth using, particularly if you have
avoided trusting Type-1 remailers by pointing your reply block to a
newsgroup. More information about mixmaster remailers is available from
http://www.obscura.com/~loki/.
The mixmaster remailer <mix@anon.lcs.mit.edu> (short name "lcs") is on
the same machine as nym.alias.net. You might want to add it to the end
of your mixmaster chain when sending mail to nym.alias.net, as this
should increase security without hurting reliability.
Note that the higher security mixmaster message format prevents Type-2
remailers from working in reply blocks.
POLICY
Any use of this alias service to violate Massachusetts or US federal law
is strictly prohibited. Additionally, you may not use this service for
commercial or otherwise profit-generating purposes, as this would
violate the acceptable use policy of the network on which nym.alias.net
resides.
Do not rely on this nym server to protect your identity. You should be
relying far more heavily on the integrity of the remailers through which
you chain your replies. The nym.alias.net service is provided in the
hope that it will be useful, but the administrators can make no
guarantees whatsoever that your identity will not be compromised.
That said, we will make a reasonable effort to keep the machine secure
and to prevent your reply block from being compromised. However, your
reply block, PGP key, and nym configuration information will all be
backed up to tape in encrypted form, and could potentially be
retrievable by the administrators even after you delete your account.
The server also keeps (and backs up in encrypted form) two statistics
about your nym: First it counts the amount of mail your alias has
received in the current 24 hour period, so as to detect flooding attacks
and alias loops with exponential message explosion (see the description
of the -disable Nym-Command for more info). Second, the server stores
the date of the last day on which you sent a PGP-signed message to
<config@nym.alias.net> or <send@nym.alias.net>.
Nym.alias.net will not accept any mail messages larger than 1 Megabyte.
In addition, your account will automatically be disabled if you send or
receive more than about 10 Megabytes of mail in one day. Note, however,
that this limit can be waived for individual aliases. If you wish to set
up a middleman-style remailer, run an anonymous mailing list, or provide
some other service to the community anonymously, you can contact
<admin@nym.alias.net> pseudonymously to explain your intent and have the
10 Megabyte/day limit removed from your account.
In order to garbage-collect abandoned accounts or accounts with lost PGP
keys, your nym will be deleted if you don't send any PGP-signed mail to
<config@nym.alias.net> or <send@nym.alias.net> for a period of 120 days.
You should receive several warning messages before this happens,
however, as long as your reply-block is still valid. It is probably a
good idea to update your reply-block every few months anyway, and simply
doing this will guarantee that your nym never expires.
Nym.alias.net is the same machine as anon.lcs.mit.edu. Keep this in mind
when choosing which remailers to chain through. (Using
mix@anon.lcs.mit.edu as your last hop for mail to nym.alias.net is
probably a good idea if and only if you you also chain through one more
hop than you would otherwise have felt comfortable with.)
PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
Here are some common problems you may have run into if you can't get
your alias to work properly. If these aren't your problems, you can seek
additional help by posting to the newsgroup alt.privacy.anon-server.
If you believe you have found a bug in the server software (and you
definitely may have), please send anonymous, pseudonymous, or regular E-
mail to <admin@nym.alias.net> reporting the problem. When reporting a
bug, include as detailed an account of the problem as possible. In
addition, if the bug involves configuration requests or outgoing
messages, please include in your bug report the entire PGP cyphertext of
a <config@nym.alias.net> or <send@nym.alias.net> message demonstrating
the bug.
Investigating bugs often involves debugging server software with the
particular message that caused the problem. Therefore, if you submit a
bug report from your real E-mail address rather than from a pseudonym,
you should create a new throw-away nym on which to demonstrate the
problem. Otherwise you may reveal your pseudonym to the administrators
of nym.alias.net.
COMMON PROBLEMS
You can't create a pseudonym. You sent mail to <config@nym.alias.net>,
never got a reply, and when you send mail to or finger
<list@nym.alias.net> the name you wanted does not show up as used.
* You forgot to make the first line of your config message "Config:". Any
message to <config@nym.alias.net> which does not begin with a line
"Config:" will be sliently discarded.
* You did not encrypt your message to <config@nym.alias.net> with the
nym.alias.net public key, or you forgot to sign it with your private
key. Only encrypted messages are read by <config@nym.alias.net>, and
even your initial creation request must be signed by the public key
you include in the configuration message.
* You clearsigned the configuration message after encrypting it, instead
of encrypting and signing at the same time. You must encrypt and
sign configuration messages in one pass, using the command:
pgp -seat message config@nym.alias.net -u "nym key ID"
This should produce a message with the first line:
-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
If instead you run `pgp -eat ...', followed by `pgp -sat ...', you
will get something like this:
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
- -----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
Version: 2.6.2
OGsHpQ/TxpazBCVhdBmPblj5wWvwfG1+ZKpIkQ5hiLJhryQM/TUDarEscs3zdaYA
The nym server cannot decode such configuration messages. They will
be bounced.
* You forgot the -t option to PGP. When the nym server decrypts messages,
it expects all lines to end LF. If you use an operating system which
ends lines CR LF and you don't use the -t flag to PGP, your messages
will contain unwanted CR characters which will pose problems when
parsing the message headers.
* Are the date and time correct on your computer? Nym.alias.net uses the
timestamps in PGP signatures to help detect replay attacks on config
and send messages. However, if the date on your computer is off by
more than a few days, messages you send to config@nym.alias.net may
be silently discarded.
You created an alias on nym.alias.net, but never received a reply from
the server. However, when you send mail to or finger
<list@nym.alias.net>, the nym appears to have been created. When you
send mail to your pseudonym, however, it bounces with the message
"Account disabled."
* Whenever you set a new reply block, you may required to confirm the
validity of the new reply block before it gets put into use.
Instructions on how to confirm a new reply block are always mailed
out via that reply block, so that if your new reply block does not
work properly you will be unable to confirm it. If you are creating
a new account and thus don't have an existing reply block, any mail
to your pseudonym will bounce. If you never received a confirmation
for your creation request and mail to that pseudonym bounces, you
probably have an invalid reply block. To fix this, just submit a new
reply block, using a message like the following, signed/encrypted
with `pgp -seat' and sent to <config@nym.alias.net>. (You don't need
to supply Public-Key or Nym-Commands section, as these will already
have been processed in your initial message.)
Config:
From: yournym
Reply-Block:
::
Anon-To: remailer@utopia.hacktic.nl
Latent-Time: +0:00
Encrypt-Key: passphrase_b
::
Encrypted: PGP
-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
Version: 2.6.2
hIwC/nqSW1QDQfUBBACknZMV93wFS2CH0orlgslmEm+alhjI1eKwbbTTmeRWC5Rg
/S3vZw+95ZuCZfqxKE0XrgZXzOEwfoyBcpVvf9Pb9D19TqEMTmmL/Jpl1xcxmbJ2
OGsHpQ/TxpazBCVhdBmPblj5wWvwfG1+ZKpIkQ5hiLJhryQM/TUDarEscs3zdaYA
AAB5231aMcQ74AKoDZizABMF3Tw+olV4mm4jVo9cMn2B3Rj2XBFl4pV9VL3h0ZQB
cPY/ytBRyZPugr0NpLgjO+q6mEjCcgQrxpYQ+1PvFPdDx1GmJ5ogZqW+AVHsNqAp
vRoiG8ZhXs4r3E8liFsNtMMf6CUAsdV2ZoX1Hw==
=Bla3
-----END PGP MESSAGE-----
**
See the next section for ideas on what may have gone wrong with your
reply block.
You can't receive mail. You think you created an alias. Mailing
<list@nym.alias.net> even shows your alias name got created. Maybe you
can even send mail from your alias. However, any time you send mail to
your alias you never receive anything.
* Could you have a bad reply block? Try testing your reply block by
mailing a short message with it to <remail@anon.lcs.mit.edu>.
* Could you have forgotten the '**' (encrypt below) marks? Type-1
remailers require '**' marks to determine where conventional
encryption should begin. If you omit the '**' marks, unpredictable
behavior may result. Note that remailers leave the '**' marks
themselves intact and only encrypt stuff below those marks. Thus,
adding '**' only once in the final reply block will seem to work.
However, this significantly weakens the security of your reply
block, as anyone seeing your message go by can send one without the
'**' and do traffic analysis much more easily on it. Encrypt the
'**' and add a new one after each PGP encryption.
* Did you remember to add
::
Encrypted: PGP
followed by a blank line before every PGP message in your reply
block? Remailers won't decrypt PGP messages if the cyphertext is not
preceeded by this.
* Could you have forgotten a blank line between some '::' and '##'
headers, or between a PGP reply-block and the next '**'? That might
cause problems with some remailers.
* Could you have inserted a whitespace character in a '::' header line
(for instance ':: ')? Some remailers are very fussy about this and
refuse to forward such messages.
You receive mail, but it is not properly encrypted or the passphrases
you chose do not work.
* Did you remember the '**' line?
* Does your passphrase contain a space character. If so, it may be that
only the first word is being used to encrypt your mail. Try
decrypting your mail with the first word of your passphrase. If it
works, then the remailer you are using requires double quotes around
multi-word passphrases, like this:
Encrypt-Key: "multi word passphrase"
It might be safest not to use spaces in your conventional encryption
keys, but to use another character for separating words.
* Are you giving an `Encrypt-Key:' header to a remailer that does not
support this functionality? Look for the ek property of remailers on
http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~raph/remailer-list.html. Those remailers
without that property will not be able to encrypt mail using `pgp -
c'.
You have established a pseudonym. You can send mail. When you receive
mail, however, the '**' and `-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----' lines are
chopped off the beginning of the mail you receive.
* This can happen when one of the remailers in your chain interprets the
'**' or `-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----' lines as malformed message
headers and discards them. To fix this, put a blank line before
every '**', '::' (except the first), and `-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE----
-' line as you are creating your reply block.
* It has been reported that this also happens if you have too many blank
lines in your reply block. Therefore, make sure you have one and
only one blank line in each appropriate place. At each stage of
creating the reply block, it should look roughly like this:
::
Anon-To: remailer@utopia.hacktic.nl
::
Encrypted: PGP
-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
...
There is exactly one blank line before the second '::', and exactly
one blank line before the `-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----'.
You have been using nym.alias.net for a while without problems. Then,
suddenly, one of your pseudonyms stops working.
* It is possible that nym.alias.net is down. To determine whether this is
in fact the case, visit http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~raph/remailer-
list.html. Check the uptime statistics for the "nym" remailer. If
"nym" is up, then nym.alias.net is working fine and not causing your
problems. Do not send mail to <admin@nym.alias.net> saying
nym.alias.net is down if the remailer list shows it is not down.
* More likely, one of the remailers in your reply block is down (you can
find this out from the remailer-list, too). If this is the case, you
must submit a new reply block as described in the section on
"CHANGING OR DELETING YOUR MAIL ALIAS".
You created an alias on nym.alias.net, but then lost your pseudonym's
PGP key. You would like to delete your old alias so that you can re-
create it with a new PGP key.
* Try at all costs to avoid loosing your nym's PGP key. If you loose it,
you will need to wait 120 days for your account to expire. There is
nothing else you can do. Nym.alias.net is designed for people who
need high-grade privacy. While you may not need as much privacy as
some, the administrators must respect the secrecy of sensitive
accounts by refusing to perform any unauthenticated deletion or
modification requests.
If for some emergency reason you really need the administrators of
nym.alias.net to do something to your account, you can send them a
request if you clearsign it with your nym's PGP key.
CLIENT SOFTWARE SUMMARY
* Premail (for unix), is available at
ftp://utopia.hacktic.nl/pub/replay/pub/remailer/premail.
* Potato (for DOS/Windows) is available from
http://www.bigfoot.com/~potatoware.
* EasyNym (for DOS/Windows) is available from
http://home.clara.net/j.davies/easynym/.
* Private IDAHO (for DOS/Windows) is available from
http://www.eskimo.com/~joelm/pi.html. A newer version (recommended)
is available from http://home.sn.no/~balchen/igloo/pidaho/.
FINGER ADDRESSES
remailer-key@nym.alias.net
Get the PGP public key for nym.alias.net.
help@nym.alias.net
A copy of this help file.
premail-info@nym.alias.net
Information on using nym.alias.net through premail--a tool which
integrates remailers with most unix mail programs.
list@nym.alias.net
A list of all taken pseudonyms.
E-MAIL ADDRESSES
admin@nym.alias.net
The address to contact if you are having problems with
nym.alias.net. Please DO NOT encrypt messages to this address with
the <config@nym.alias.net>/<send@nym.alias.net> PGP key. This key is
only for use by the nym server and is not on any person's keyring.
If you wish to encrypt mail for an administrator of nym.alias.net,
use the PGP key for <mix-admin@anon.lcs.mit.edu>, available by
fingering that address.
help@nym.alias.net
Sending mail to this address gets you a copy of this help file.
remailer-key@nym.alias.net
Get the PGP public key for nym.alias.net.
list@nym.alias.net
Send mail here to get a list of all taken pseudonyms.
config@nym.alias.net
The address to which to send configuration messages. All messages to
this address must be PGP encrypted and signed with "pgp -seat". In
addition, THE FIRST LINE OF PGP-SIGNED TEXT IN A MESSAGE TO config
MUST BE `Config:'. Otherwise your message will be completely
ignored.
When sending one or more reply-blocks to <config@nym.alias.net>,
they must come at the end of the message after any `Public-Key:' or
`Nym-Command:' headers.
send@nym.alias.net
To send mail from your alias address, PGP encrypt and sign the
message with "pgp -seat", and mail it to this address.
source@nym.alias.net
The address to contact for source to the nym server.
> From freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Mon Mar 06 07:23:57 2006
> Message-ID: <20060306072357.17030.qmail@nym.alias.net>
> Received: from nym.alias.net (212.112.114.106 [212.112.114.106])
> by nym.alias.net with SMTP;
> for help@nym.alias.net;
> Mon, 06 Mar 2006 02:23:40 -0500 (EST)
> (envelope-from freebsd-questions@freebsd.org)
> SPF-Received: softfail; receiver=nym.alias.net; client-ip=212.112.114.106;
> envelope-from=<freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>; helo=nym.alias.net;
> mechanism=~all
> X-Avenger: version=0.7.4; receiver=nym.alias.net; client-ip=212.112.114.106;
> client-port=1395; syn-fingerprint=16384:108:1:48:M1452,N,N,S Windows 2000
> SP2, XP SP1 (seldom 98 4.10.2222); data-bytes=0; network-hops=21;
> network-path=18.26.0.1 128.30.0.245 18.4.7.1 18.168.0.27 192.5.89.89
> 192.5.89.10 198.32.11.51 62.40.112.133 62.40.112.57 62.40.124.34
> 188.1.18.53 188.1.18.110 188.1.47.42 194.67.223.233 0.0.0.0 194.67.220.225
> 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 212.112.114.106;
> network-path-time=1141629815; RBL=cbl.abuseat.org (127.0.0.2)
> From: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
> To: help@nym.alias.net
> Subject: Important
> Date: Mon, 6 Mar 2006 12:23:33 +0500
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
> boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0013_00003996.000061B0"
> X-Priority: 1
> X-MSMail-Priority: High
>
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20060306072357.4294.qmail>