Skip to main content

Message Splitting Against the Partial Adversary

  • Conference paper
Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PET 2005)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNSC,volume 3856))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

We review threat models used in the evaluation of anonymity systems’ vulnerability to traffic analysis. We then suggest that, under the partial adversary model, if multiple packets have to be sent through these systems, more anonymity can be achieved if senders route the packets via different paths. This is in contrast to the normal technique of using the same path for them all. We comment on the implications of this for message-based and connection-based anonymity systems. We then proceed to examine the only remaining traffic analysis attack – one which considers the entire system as a black box. We show that it is more difficult to execute than the literature suggests, and attempt to empirically estimate the parameters of the Mixmaster and the Mixminion systems needed in order to successfully execute the attack.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Pfitzmann, A., Köhntopp, M.: Anonymity, unobservability, and pseudonymity: A proposal for terminology. Draft, version 0.17 (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Serjantov, A.: On the Anonymity of Anonymity Systems. PhD thesis, University of Cambridge (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Danezis, G., Dingledine, R., Mathewson, N.: Mixminion: Design of a Type III Anonymous Remailer Protocol. In: Proceedings of the 2003 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Dingledine, R., Mathewson, N., Syverson, P.: Tor: The second-generation onion router. In: Proceedings of the 13th USENIX Security Symposium (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Kesdogan, D., Pimenidis, L.: The hitting set attack on anonymity protocols. In: Fridrich, J. (ed.) IH 2004. LNCS, vol. 3200, pp. 326–339. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  6. Kesdogan, D., Agrawal, D., Penz, S.: Limits of anonymity in open environments. In: Petitcolas, F.A.P. (ed.) IH 2002. LNCS, vol. 2578, pp. 53–69. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  7. Agrawal, D., Kesdogan, D., Penz, S.: Probabilistic Treatment of MIXes to Hamper Traffic Analysis. In: Proceedings of the 2003 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Danezis, G.: Statistical disclosure attacks: Traffic confirmation in open environments. In: Gritzalis, Vimercati, Samarati, Katsikas (eds.) Proceedings of Security and Privacy in the Age of Uncertainty (SEC 2003), IFIP TC11, Athens, pp. 421–426. Kluwer, Dordrecht (2003)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  9. Danezis, G., Serjantov, A.: Statistical disclosure or intersection attacks on anonymity systems. In: Fridrich, J. (ed.) IH 2004. LNCS, vol. 3200, pp. 293–308. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  10. Zhu, Y., Fu, X., Graham, B., Bettati, R., Zhao, W.: On flow correlation attacks and countermeasures in mix networks. In: Martin, D., Serjantov, A. (eds.) PET 2004. LNCS, vol. 3424, pp. 207–225. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  11. Möller, U., Cottrell, L., Palfrader, P., Sassaman, L.: Mixmaster Protocol – Version 2. Draft (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Danezis, G.: The traffic analysis of continuous-time mixes. In: Martin, D., Serjantov, A. (eds.) PET 2004. LNCS, vol. 3424, pp. 35–50. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  13. Syverson, P.F., Tsudik, G., Reed, M., Landwehr, C.: Towards an Analysis of Onion Routing Security. In: Federrath, H. (ed.) Designing Privacy Enhancing Technologies. LNCS, vol. 2009, pp. 96–114. Springer, Heidelberg (2001)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  14. Wright, M., Adler, M., Levine, B.N., Shields, C.: An analysis of the degradation of anonymous protocols. In: Proceedings of the Network and Distributed Security Symposium – NDSS 2002. IEEE, Los Alamitos (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Feamster, N., Dingledine, R.: Location diversity in anonymity networks. In: Proceedings of the Workshop on Privacy in the Electronic Society (WPES 2004), Washington, DC, USA (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Danezis, G.: Better Anonymous Communications. PhD thesis, University of Cambridge (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Serjantov, A., Dingledine, R., Syverson, P.: From a trickle to a flood: Active attacks on several mix types. In: Petitcolas, F.A.P. (ed.) IH 2002. LNCS, vol. 2578, pp. 36–52. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  18. Díaz, C., Sassaman, L., Dewitte, E.: Comparison between two practical mix designs. In: Samarati, P., Ryan, P.Y.A., Gollmann, D., Molva, R. (eds.) ESORICS 2004. LNCS, vol. 3193, pp. 141–159. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  19. Díaz, C., Serjantov, A.: Generalising mixes. In: Dingledine, R. (ed.) PET 2003. LNCS, vol. 2760, pp. 18–31. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  20. Python Software Foundation (2003), http://www.python.org/

  21. R Development Core Team: R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria (2004), http://www.R-project.org/ , ISBN 3-900051-07-0

  22. Tufte, E.R.: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd edn. Graphics Press (1992), ISBN 0-961392-10-X

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Serjantov, A., Murdoch, S.J. (2006). Message Splitting Against the Partial Adversary. In: Danezis, G., Martin, D. (eds) Privacy Enhancing Technologies. PET 2005. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3856. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11767831_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11767831_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-34745-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-34746-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics