Cypherpunk anonymous remailer

Cypherpunk anonymous remailer also known as a Type I remailer is a type of anonymous remailer that receives messages encrypted with PGP or GPG, follows predetermined instructions, strips any identifying information, and afterwards forwards these messages to the desired recipient.[1]

This type of remailer is largely considered outdated and comes with flaws that were fixed in later generations which are called type II and type III. One such flaw is that the messages sent to these remailers are all sent in the order they were received. This allows traffic analysis to determine who sent the message. Before Mixmaster or type II remailers solved this issue by sending mail all at the same time or in waves based on the time received,[2] people would try to fix this issue by chaining type one remailers together to further obfuscate the sender.[3]

When type II remailers came into existence, they built upon the technology of type I remailers. This made type I remailers mostly obsolete.[4] However, there are still websites and systems that rely on this general idea of layered encryption and identity obfuscation.

Uses

While they are mostly considered obsolete due to the Mixmaster being the most common and easily accessible remailer type, cypherpunk remailers can still be applicable in niche applications for those who have no other accessible options. For example, sites that are censored or blocked by governments can use remailers to circumvent the censorship. Cypherpunk remailers require the least amount of work and resources to run, and can therefore be a good solution for those with little assets or time to spare.

Tools and resources for the use of remailers

The easiest type to run is a Type I remailer; however you can optimize and upgrade as you learn more.[5] There are numerous tools on GitHub that can assist a person with using remailers such as remail.sh. This tool allows the user to easily chain Mixmaster remailers together, and cypherpunk-cli allows the user to chain multiple type one remailers.

See also

Tutorials and examples

Notes
  • The additional headers used in this context are referred to as 'pseudo-headers' because they are not included in the RFC 822 headers specification for email.
  • Messages sent to Cypherpunk remailers can be layered, meaning they pass through multiple Cypherpunk remailers in order to minimize the chances of identifying the sender.
  • Some Cypherpunk remailers also function as Mixmaster anonymous remailers, enabling them to divide long Cypherpunk messages into Mixmaster packets and forward them to the next remailer if it supports Mixmaster functionality.
  • Many users of Cypherpunk remailers may choose to repeat steps 1-4 in order to add additional layers of protection to their messages, routing them through multiple remailers for enhanced privacy and security.

Further reading
  • Email Security, Bruce Schneier (ISBN 0-471-05318-X)
  • Computer Privacy Handbook, Andre Bacardi (ISBN 1-56609-171-3)

References
  1. A joint project of the George Mason Society and the Global Internet Liberty Campaign https://mason.gmu.edu/~afinn/html/tele/components/anonymous_remailers.htm Archived 2021-09-24 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Anonymous Remailers. (n.d.). Retrieved August 10, 2023, from https://mason.gmu.edu/~afinn/html/tele/components/anonymous_remailers.htm Archived 2021-09-24 at the Wayback Machine
  3. Remailers: Send Emails without Registration. (n.d.). Retrieved August 10, 2023, from https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Remailer#Cypherpunk_Remailer Archived 2023-06-09 at the Wayback Machine
  4. Winkler, S., & Zeadally, S. (2015). An analysis of tools for online anonymity. International Journal of Pervasive Computing and Communications, 11(4), 436–453. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPCC-08-2015-0030 Archived 2023-08-13 at the Wayback Machine
  5. Len Sassaman (Director). (n.d.). 2003-08-01 Len Sassaman—DEFCON 11—Panel—Behind the Remailers. Retrieved July 20, 2023, from http://archive.org/details/2003-08-01LenSassaman-Defcon11-Panel-BehindTheRemailers


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