The Design, Implementation and Operation of an Email Pseudonym Server

Attacks on servers that provide anonymity generally fall into two categories: attempts to expose anonymous users and attempts to silence them. Much existing work concentrates on withstanding the former, but the threat of the latter is equally real. One particularly effective attack against anonymous servers is to abuse them and stir up enough trouble that they must shut down. This paper describes the design, implementation, and operation of nym.alias.net, a server providing untraceable email aliases. We enumerate many kinds of abuse the system has weathered during two years of operation, and explain the measures we enacted in response. From our experiences, we distill several principles by which one can protect anonymous servers from similar attacks.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1998
• Where: CCS
• Authors: David Mazières, M. Frans Kaashoek
• Keywords: Anonymous Servers, Anonymous Users, CCS 1998, Security Privacy, Untraceable Email Aliases