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Security and Encryption FAQ - Revision
20.2
by Doctor Who
"No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with
his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon
his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the
protection of the law against such interference or attacks."
Article 12 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
This FAQ/Tutorial is offered in good faith and is intended to be
an encapsulation of my knowledge and experiences gained over the
many years that I have been a computer/Net user. There are many
roads to security and privacy on the Net, this is just one that I
have personally pursued and can recommend from experiences
gained.
There are countless reasons why someone may need the reassurance
of anonymity. The most obvious is as a protection against an
over-bearing Government. Many people reside in countries where
human rights are dubious and they need anonymity to raise public
awareness and publish these abuses to the world at large. This
FAQ is to help such people. Privacy and anonymity are very
important principles associated with both freedom of speech and
democracy.
"Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority...
It thus exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights, and of
the First Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular
individuals from retaliation - and their ideas from suppression -
at the hand of an intolerant society."
Justice Stevens, McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission, 1996
This is a follow-on to the major revision 20. This latest
revision now includes a method for achieving a high level of
anonymity for your Email using Quicksilver.
It is assumed that plausible deniability is an essential
requirement to the reader and the FAQ is slanted with this in
mind.
Part 1 offers an overview approach to achieve security and
anonymity. It is intended for the less knowledgeable user,
perhaps someone new to computers and especially the Internet.
This first part can be skipped by the more knowledgeable user.
Part 2. In the second part will be the practical implementations
of some of the programs mentioned in Part 1. In some cases this
will include detailed setup instructions to help achieve the goal
of true computer and Internet privacy and anonymity.
Links to the various programs mentioned are at the end of Part 2.
Part 1
1. How does encryption work?
Essentially the plaintext is combined with a mathematical
algorithm (a set of rules for processing data) such that the
original text cannot be deduced from the output file, hence the
data is now in encrypted form. To enable the process to be
secure, a key is combined with this algorithm. The key is
protected by a passphrase. Obviously the process must be
reversible, but only with the aid of the correct key. Without the
key, the process should be extremely difficult. The mathematics
of the encryption should be openly available for peer review. At
first sight this may appear to compromize the encryption, but
this is far from the case. Peer review ensures that there are no
"back doors" or crypto weaknesses within the program.
Although the algorithm is understood, it is the combination of
its use with the passphrase that ensures secrecy.
Thus the passphrase is critical to the security of the data.
2. I want my Hard Drive and my Email to be secure, how
can I achieve this?
You need PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) for your Email and DCPP
(DriveCrypt Plus Pack) version 3.0 or TrueCrypt version 2.1 for
your hard drive encrypted files.
Both DCPP and TrueCrypt are known as OTF (On-The-Fly) type
programs. OTF means the encrypted data is only decrypted into RAM
(Random Access Memory) and remains at all times encrypted on the
drive. Thus a crash close will not leaves packets of plaintext on
your drive. A very important feature.
PGP is available for all versions of Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac
and others. The source code is available for compiling your own
version should you wish.
DCPP is Win2000/NT/XP compliant but not compliant with Win98 or
earlier. Regrettably, no source code is available. It has two
unique advantages over other encryption programs. 1. It is a
whole boot drive encryption program. 2. It offers a form of very
good plausible deniability. More on this later in the FAQ.
TrueCrypt is a new, free and open source program of great
promise.
As with DCPP it does not display any file header info to help a
snooper identify the file's purpose. The header is encrypted and
just shows as random garbage. It also allows encryption of a
whole partition or drive and again does not display any info to
help an attacker. The source code is freely available so it means
anyone with the ability can compile the same program. The
importance of this cannot be too strongly stressed. It means the
risk of a hidden back-door is virtually eliminated.
Securstar the owners of DCPP also offer another program somewhat
analogous to Truecrypt. It has the disadvantage of being closed
source and not free, but offers the option of a hidden container
within the outer encrypted container (or partition). It is called
somewhat ambiguously, DriveCrypt.
DCPP, DriveCrypt and TrueCrypt have an additional crucial
feature, they all offer strong plausible deniability - see later
in the FAQ.
If the sighting of the source code is important to you, I suggest
using PGP and TrueCrypt.
Note 1: PGP, although excellent to ensure your Email privacy,
does nothing for anonymity. The difference is crucial.
I will assume that anonymity is also very high on your list of
needs and so will concentrate on that issue further down the FAQ.
3. What is the difference between these encryption
programs?
One of the difficulties before asymmetrical key encryption was
discovered was how to get the key to the person wanting to send
you an encrypted message. In the past trusted couriers were used
to get these secret keys to a distant location, maybe an overseas
embassy. Nowadays this is unneccessary because of the discovery
of what is called public key cryptography. Two different keys are
used. One key is secret and the other is made public. The most
widespread program of this type for home and private use is PGP,
invented by Phil Zimmerman. In fact it has become the de facto
standard on the Net. This program is ideal for Email.
Anybody sending you mail simply encrypts their message to you
with your PGP public key. It is analogous to someone sending you
a box and a self locking padlock for you to send them secret
papers, when only they have the key to open the box.
The public key is obviously not secret - in fact it may be spread
far and wide so that anybody can find it if they wish to send you
encrypted Email. The easiest way to ensure this is by submitting
it to a public key server. Despite this facility, some prefer not
to share their key, except within a small closed group. Your
choice.
The only way to decrypt this incoming message is with your secret
key. It is impossible to decrypt using the same key as was used
to encrypt the message, the public key. Thus it is called
asymmetrical encryption. It is a one way system of encryption,
requiring the corresponding secret key to decrypt. PGP is
simplicity itself to install and use. It even offers to send your
newly generated public key to a key server.
Another very important advantage of PGP is it allows the option
of a digital signature. This is the digital equivalent of someone
signing a letter. Only this signature is very difficult to forge,
unlike a paper and ink signature. This proves both the
authenticity of a message and that it has not been tampered with.
For your normal hard drive encryption, you will need a
symmetrical type of encryption program. This means the same key
is used for both encryption and decryption. DCPP and TrueCrypt
are of this type and especially good because they are OTF
(On-The-Fly) type programs.
Both DCPP, DriveCrypt and TrueCrypt use the passphrase to encrypt
a randomly created key. In DCPP this is stored encrypted in the
keystore and in DriveCrypt and TrueCrypt it is encrypted within
the header and the plaintext of the key is the device used to
encrypt (and decrypt) the contents of the disk on an as needed
basis into RAM memory.
One question often asked by newbies is whether the passphrase is
stored somewhere within the encrypted file. No. The passphrase is
passed through a hash, such as SHA-1. It is the hash output that
is stored within the headers of the encrypted container. The
program will compare this hash with the hash it produces from
your passphrase that you type in to mount (open) the container.
If they are identical, the program will use your passphrase to
decrypt the key that the program generated to encrypt the disk or
container. It is this key that will then be used to decrypt the
disk or container on the fly.
Hashing is a one way action only; it is impossible to derive the
key from the hash output. The hashing process is simply a way of
checking that the correct passphrase has been input. If the
program was somehow altered to force it to use an incorrect
passphrase, the output would be garbage.
4. I have Windows, am I safe?
Windows is a closed source operating system which is a law to
itself. Each new update that is released by Microsoft seems to
need more updates to fix the security holes discovered in the
first releases of the update. It has been an ongoing process over
many years with no end in sight.
These weaknesses can manifest themselves as security holes when
on the Net. A further problem with this operating system is its
seeming determination to write to your hard disk all sorts of
information that may be hidden from your view in all sorts of
places that could be found by a forensic examination of your
computer.
This is a two fold problem. Firstly, the problem of Windows
having the potential of security holes that might be exploited by
snoops and hackers using the Net and a different security problem
of writing all sorts of information to sometimes hidden folders
that might not be obvious by a cursory check by you, but easily
found by a forensic examination.
If you wish to protect yourself from these potential weaknesses
you need to first of all have an effective firewall and an
effective anti-virus program. That will hopefully help to
minimize the threats from outside. That is only the start. You
also need to replace your Windows Internet Explorer browser for
something a lot more secure. I like FireFox or Mozilla. Even
these need strengthening by the use of specialist programs. More
about that later in the FAQ.
Secondly, you are well advised to encrypt your whole drive to
protect yourself from what Windows will write to your hard drive.
There are so-called wipe and cleaner programs to remove cookies
and many other files that Windows will save to your hard drive
for future reference. But at the end of the day, the only truly
effective counter measure against these potential weaknesses is
to encrypt your whole boot drive.
In some countries, even this might not be enough. Such countries
can force you to hand over your passphrases to these encrypted
drives on pain of imprisonment. As more and more judicial systems
seem to be leaning ever closer to this sort of injustice
(injustice because the culprit is being forced to
self-incriminate himself which is in direct violation of Article
5 of the Bill of Rights. The right to refuse to be a witness
against oneself.
Because of these encroachments on our liberty I propose a method
of plausible deniability. This means you can justify all your
files and folders that are on your computer.
5. Which program do you recommend for this whole drive
encryption?
Unfortunately, there is at present no modern whole boot drive
encryption program with open source which also allows a hidden
operating system accessible on boot. Of the many different boot
drive encryption programs, I like DCPP. It is truly simple to
install. The new and vastly improved key registration process is
helpful. But best of all it offers truly excellent plausible
deniability for its presence on your system.
It encrypts the whole partition. So if you want to keep part of
your drive in plaintext you will need to divide your hard drive
into independent partitions or have two separate hard drives.
Unlike both DriveCrypt and TrueCrypt, it does not destroy the
data within the partition it encrypts. This is obviously
essential as its main advantage is its ability to encrypt your
boot drive.
A further major advantage over previously recommended encryption
programs is that the passphrase is input at Bios level, before
Windows is loaded.
The importance of this is difficult to over-emphasize.
This means it is impossible for any software key-logging program
that may be on your computer to detect your passphrase. Such
programs are sometimes picked up on the Net or arrive via Email
and could circumvent all your efforts at security. It is even
conceivable that a snooper or hacker could steal your passphrase
as you type it in, if this is done whilst the operating system is
running. I am sure someone will mention that there are hardware
keyboard logging devices which of course could grab your
passphrase when you start up.
However, common sense local site security should minimize this
risk.
A Bios level input of the passphrase in conjunction with whole
boot drive encryption is just about the Holy Grail of security -
without a hardware keyboard logging device, very difficult to
intercept and snoop.
6. Are there other OTF programs?
Yes, there are several. But so far as I know only DCPP operates
from boot and includes the opportunity of creating a second
(hidden) boot operating system.
Others, such as TrueCrypt only encrypt data files, not the
Windows operating system.
TrueCrypt also offers strong plausible deniability because it
allows you to encrypt a partition that appears to be unused and
without a drive letter. The method of ensuring this is simply
explained in the manual that accompanies TrueCrypt. The author
must be congratulated for doing an excellent job of this program.
It is important to note that just simply publishing the source
code does not guarantee safety. It just means the author is
allowing his program to be subjected to peer review. Hopefully
many will take the trouble to go through the code and compile it
for themselves.
7. How difficult is it to break one of these programs?
Very difficult, in fact for all practical purposes, it is
considered impossible. In most cases, the weakest link will be
your passphrase, or being compromized by a key-logger through not
having good security on your desktop.
Your passphrase should be long. Remember, every extra character
you enter makes a dictionary search for the right phrase twice as
long. Each time a bit is added it doubles the number crunching
time to crack into the program.
Each keyboard character roughly equates to 8 bits, and is
represented on the drive as two hexadecimal characters. This
suggests a 20 character passphrase is equal strength to the
encryption. In practice, probably not. Remember a keyboard has
around 96 different combinations of key strokes, thus multiplying
this number by itself 20 times is a hugely large combination,
ensuring a high probability of defeat at guessing a passphrase.
But few people can remember a truly random 20 character
passphrase. So most people use a less than random one. This means
it should be longer to help compensate for this lack of entropy.
You should also use at least part of both lines of the passphrase
input screen with DCPP. If you like, two passphrases.
8. Why?
Because any passphrase cracker cannot find the correct key until
it has exhausted a key search as wide as the last character you
enter. A strong hint that you should make sure the last character
of your passphrase is well along the bottom line! For higher
security you should spread it around on both lines.
Although TrueCrypt has a single line entry it will accept a long
passphrase of at least 57 characters from my simple tests.
Be sure that if any serious snooper wants to view your secret
data, they will find a way without wasting their time attempting
a brute force attack upon your DCPP or TrueCrypt container. In
some countries rubber hose cryptography may be the rule. In some
"civilized" countries there are more sinister methods,
such as tempest or the use of a trojan (see later in FAQ).
Fortunately, tempest and trojan attacks are far less likely to
succeed against DCPP than all the other programs. Hence my strong
and enthusiastic support for this program.
9. What about simple file by file encryption?
I recommend either PGP Tools which comes free with PGP or
Kremlin. Of course this is not necessary for files within your
encrypted drive. But is essential to clear files off your
computer that are outside your encrypted drive.
PGP Tools is a long winded process just to encrypt a single file,
as it asks you to first choose a key before entering the
passphrase. Kremlin is quicker because it allows you to right
click on the file to be encrypted, a password box opens and that
is it. It also similarly allows you to wipe any file by right
clicking. This can also be done by PGP. Another recommended
program to erase individual files is Eraser.
10. How can I encrypt files on a floppy?
Use either TrueCrypt, DCPP, PGP Tools or Kremlin.
11. Does using Encryption slow things up?
Negligibly on any modern computer. The length of your passphrase
is immaterial to the speed of decryption. But different
encryption algorithms vary significantly. One of the fastest is
Twofish and probably the slowest is 3DES (triple DES). This
applies only to symmetrical encryption programs. PGP uses RSA
generated keys, which in turn are used to encrypt/decrypt a
randomly generated session key. The RSA key is very slow, but as
it is only used to encrypt/decrypt the 128 bit CAST5 or IDEA
session key its slowness is not noticed.
12. Do I need a PGP passphrase if I store my keyrings
within my encrypted drive?
Definitely. Just because you have encrypted your drive does not
relieve you of the necessity of protecting yourself whilst
online.
13. I use Mac, OS2, Linux, (fill in your choice), what
about me?
Use either BestCrypt (by Jetico - do a Google search) or PGPDisk.
There are others, but I know nothing about them.
14. How can I ensure I do not leave traces of unwanted
plaintext files on my system?
If you are using DCPP this should not be a problem. But one thing
that needs addressing is the possibility of Windows dumping your
keyfile data which is held in RAM memory only, onto the encrypted
drive. To avoid this catastrophe you must disable the Windows
hibernation (power saving) feature. When Windows goes into
hibernation it will dump everything that is in RAM memory onto
the boot drive by-passing the DCPP drivers. By-passing these
drivers means it writes everything to disk in plaintext including
the keyfile data, which unlocks your most secret partition. This
will defeat the whole purpose of having encryption.
Although your whole drive will be encrypted I would still install
a program to clean out bloat and cookies. My recommendation for
this is Windows Washer.
To wipe unused space on your drive I recommend Zapempty. Although
a Dos based program, it runs easily even within Win XP. This is a
part of a zipped file of wipe utilities called Wipeutil.zip
Extract Zapempty onto the drive you wish to clean up and double
click on it. I recommend keeping copies in the root of every
partition on your computer.
15. What programs do I put in my newly Encrypted Drive?
In previous versions of this FAQ I was wary that some programs
might write critical data to your boot drive. However, this is
far less of a security risk with it being encrypted. What is far
more important now is that these programs do not leak private
information whilst you are on the Net. For what it is worth, here
are some I recommend:
For your Web browsing I strongly recommend FireFox or Mozilla as
the browser. Anything other than Microsoft Internet Explorer.
For Usenet I recommend either Agent or Gravity or Xnews. These
latter
two are free.
Agent is simple and very easy to use. The commercial version also
supports automatic decoding of yEnc coded files.
For your Email I have 2 different recommendations:
i. Agent, as mentioned above
ii. Quicksilver
Quicksilver is both open source and free.
Do not use Outlook or Outlook Express as they both suffer from
the
usual Windows holes.
Use Quicksilver for both Email and light Usenet posting with
strong anonymity via the Mixmaster remailer system. When
downloading Quicksilver, remember to run update immediately after
installation, to download and install the Zipped files for News,
Nym, POP and PGP and Mixmaster. Quicksilver will offer to install
all downloaded files for you.
Both of these programs will also work with PGP. Agent will
require you to copy and paste, but Quicksilver has built-in
support and works seamlessly with PGP. I particularly commend
Quicksilver for its intuitive ease of use. This makes Nym
maintenance much simpler.
I used to recommend JBN, but it is slowly becoming obsolescent.
It is not fully compatible with PGP versions 7 or later and does
not support SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) authentication.
But it is still the favorite of many.
You must also have a virus checker and a firewall. For the virus
checker, I use Norton's. This will also find adware and spyware.
For the firewall I recommend Zonealarm.
Remember, just because your drive is encrypted does not relieve
you of an obligation to cover your tracks whilst Online.
16. How do I "cover my tracks"?
Never surf naked. Always, always use a proxy. There are now easy
ways to use a proxy. In the early days it was necessary to find
and hand select the proxies you wished to use. This was a
laborious process and needed expert knowledge of which programs
to use to find and exploit them. Some still prefer to do it this
way. I call it rolling your own. It has the distinct advantage of
user choice and control over each proxy to be used in a chain.
However, this may offer anonymity, but not necessarily privacy.
Meaning no encryption. I like privacy and anonymity, so I use
other methods - see later in FAQ. The suggested method also has
the merit of ease of use and total transparency once the programs
are set up.
17. Earlier on you mentioned plausible deniability, what
is it?
Plausible deniability is the ability to offer irrefutable
justification for every single file, folder, container, partition
and drive that might contain encrypted data. DCPP version 3.0
offers a world first because it allows dual booting into either
of two entirely separate boot operating systems, each invisible
to the other. One of these may be called your honeypot operating
system, meaning it contains encrypted data that you are prepared
to show under duress. The second (hidden) operating system will
contain your most secret data that you never release. Its
presence can only be known by correctly guessing the second
secret passphrase for that operating system. No other way exists
to prove there is a second operating system. Examination by
forensics of your first encrypted boot drive can only show the
usual random data that is associated with an encrypted drive.
Nothing else.
This is excellent plausible deniability.
18. What if encryption is illegal in my country?
In that case, I suggest using the stego feature of DriveCrypt.
But ensure you create your own WAV file, by making your own
recording. Once the stego encrypted file is created within the
WAV file, make sure to wipe the original recording to prevent
forensic analysis showing their low level data are not identical.
Of course, you will need to install DriveCrypt in traveller mode.
This means running it off a floppy. But you will still need to
hide the floppy effectively in the case of a search. I am sorry I
cannot help you here. It must be down to your own initiative.
19. Are there any other precautions I should take?
Make copies of all your PGP keys, a text file of all your
passwords and program registration codes, copies of INI files for
critical programs, secret Bank Account numbers, plus anything
else that is so critical your life would be inconvenienced if it
were lost. These individual files should all be stored in a
folder called "Safe" on your encrypted drive. A copy of
this folder should be stored on an encrypted CD, preferably
within the hidden part if using DriveCrypt 4.2 and stored
off-site.
If you are going to rely on any variation of the ploys suggested
here, then you should keep this FAQ within your hidden drive.
You need to take further precautions whilst you are online
against threats from hackers and snoops.
20. What are these threats?
They are known as Tempest and Trojan attacks.
21. What is a Tempest attack?
Tempest is an acronym for Transient ElectroMagnetic Pulse
Emanation Surveillance. This is the science of monitoring at a
distance electronic signals carried on wires or displayed on a
monitor. Although of only slight significance to the average
user, it is of enormous importance to serious cryptography
snoopers. To minimize a tempest attack you should screen all the
cables between your computer and your accessories, particularly
your monitor. A flat screen (non CRT) monitor offers a
considerable reduction in radiated emissions and is recommended.
22. What is a Trojan?
A trojan (from the Greek Trojan Horse), is a hidden program that
monitors your key-strokes and then either copies them to a secret
folder for later recovery or sends them to a server when you next
go online. This may be done without your knowledge. Such a trojan
may be secretly placed on your computer or picked up on your
travels on the Net. It might be sent by someone hacking into your
computer whilst you are online, or received by Email.
The United States Government has openly admitted it will be
employing such techniques. They call it Magic Lantern. It was
originally promulgated as a counter-terrorism weapon. But who
knows how it will be used in practice.
In view of these changed tactics, it is mandatory that these
possible attacks be countered. My suggestion is two-pronged.
First use DCPP to enjoy plausible deniability with whole boot
drive encryption and use specialist programs to thwart efforts by
hackers and snoops to break into your system whilst online.
23. How do I do this?
First of all you must have a truly effective firewall. It is not
sufficient for a firewall to simply monitor downloaded data, but
to also monitor all attempts by programs within your computer
that may try and send data out. I recommend Zonealarm. This
firewall very cleverly makes an encrypted hash of each program to
ensure that a re-named or modified version of a previously
acceptable program cannot squeeze through and "phone
home". You also need a good anti-virus checker.
But that is but the start. You also need a Web browser that does
not leak information, plus a method of passing data across your
ISP's servers fully encrypted to prevent prying eyes from
watching all that you do on the Net. More about this later in the
FAQ.
24. How will I know when a trojan has modified an
acceptable program?
Zonealarm will pop up a screen telling you a changed (or new)
program is trying to connect to the Net and do you wish to allow
it. If it is one of your regular programs, be very wary and
always initially say NO until you can check why this program is
not now acceptable to Zonealarm. If it is a strange program, then
obviously say, NO and investigate.
25. What about TrueCrypt and DriveCrypt 4.2?
Both TrueCrypt and DriveCrypt 4.2 offer the prospect of excellent
plausible deniability. No header information and the ability to
install them on an unused partition, perhaps at the end of a
large drive. The passphrase is only held in RAM memory so much
more difficult to compromize. An examination of your drive will
only show garbage. This is certainly not the case with some
encryption programs.
DriveCrypt 4.2 also allows the creation of a hidden container
within an existing encrypted container or partition. Excellent
plausible deniability. As with TrueCrypt the passphrase must be
input after boot when Windows is running.
26. How important is the passphrase?
Critically important. It is almost certainly the weakest link in
the encryption chain with most home/amateur users. I provide
links at the end of Part 2 of the FAQ. Some of these should
either help directly or give further links about how to create an
effective passphrase.
For the newbies: never choose a single word, no matter how
unusual you think it is. A passphrase must be that, a phrase, a
series of words, characters and punctuation intermixed. One
method that I believe would help is to deliberately mis-spell
common words in a phrase. Scruggle in place of struggle,
matrificent in place of magnificent. These could be the start of
a longer phrase. Taking this a step further, invent words that
are pronounceable but totally meaningless for example, alamissis
or grafexion. I recommend a minimum of eight words, but obviously
do not use either of those two. Use four (or more) on each line
with DCPP, together with a few figures.
27. How can I prevent someone using my computer when I am
away?
With DCPP nobody can boot into your secret drive. So no problem.
However, if you are truly paranoid (and who isn't?) I would guard
against someone adding a hardware keyboard logger. These can be
very small and easily disguised as an RF trap on the keyboard
lead. Obviously, this is far more likely if your computer is also
used by others or can be accessed by others in your absence.
28. I use the Net for Web browsing, Usenet and Email, am
I safe?
Whilst you are online anyone could be monitoring your account.
They do not need access to your computer to do this. They need
only to have access to your ISP. If you live in the British Isles
be aware that all ISP's are required to keep logs of your online
activities, including which Web sites you visit.
To minimize these risks you must encrypt the data passing across
your ISP's servers.
My suggestion is to use a combination of several programs. Each
is easily set up (see Part 2). Between them you will be secure
and anonymous. The best news, all these programs are free and
open source!
29. How is this achieved?
You need four main programs besides the news client such as Agent
(my favorite) and the Web browser such as FireFox (again my
favorite) and the Email client such as Quicksilver, (yes, another
favorite).
These programs are: Stunnel, Freecap, Privoxy and Tor.
They are all very easy to use and really can be setup by a newbie
if you follow the setup instructions I offer in Part 2. The best
part of all is they are totally transparent to the user. Once
setup there is no maintenance or searching for proxies, etc. It
is all automatic.
30. Tell me more about these programs?
Stunnel encrypts the data between you and your news server and is
very simple to use.
Freecap is also easy to setup and acts as the bridge between
Stunnel and Tor.
Tor is a connection-based low-latency (meaning fast) anonymous
communication system that protects TCP (Transmission Control
Protocol) streams for Usenet, web browsing, instant messaging,
irc, ssh, etc.
In basic language Tor is a socks server that accepts and encrypts
data from any program that is "socksified", meaning set
up to communicate with it.
Tor is a new program and is still in Beta development mode. But
it is still a fully functioning Socks proxying system that offers
the promise of great anonymity and privacy. It is free and open
source. It is being improved almost on a daily basis. The latest
version now has a Windows install facility.
Tor will build automatically and transparently to the client
(you) an anonymous and encrypted route across the Net. It uses
multiple layers of encryption, each node only knowing the
previous and next node, so with several nodes your data becomes
anonymised. The principle is like an onion with many layers of
encryption and anonymity. Thus it is called onion routing. Where
the data eventually emerges it is sent on to its destination,
perhaps a news server and ordinarily in the clear. But by using
Stunnel, the data will still be encrypted all the way into the
news server or the remailer, whichever you are using.
For Web browsing we need Privoxy. This again acts as a bridge
between your browser and Tor.
A web proxy is a service, based on a software such as Privoxy,
that clients (i.e. browsers) can use instead of connecting
directly to the web servers on the Internet. The clients then ask
the proxy to fetch the objects they need (web pages, images,
movies etc) on their behalf, and when the proxy has done so, it
hands the results back to the client.
There are many reasons to use web proxies, such as security
(firewalling), efficiency (caching) and others, and there are
just as many different proxies to accommodate those needs.
Privoxy is a proxy that is solely focused on privacy protection
and junk elimination. Sitting between your browser(s) and the
Internet, it is in a perfect position to filter outbound personal
information that your browser is leaking, as well as inbound
junk. It uses a variety of techniques to do this, all of which
are under your control via the various configuration files and
options.
Privoxy will bridge the connection between your browser and Tor
the Socks proxy host. It will minimize pop up ads, etc. But its
main advantage is it will help prevent information leakage from
your desktop to any third party trying to sniff your data. Used
in conjunction with Tor it ensures all your Web browsing is
totally anonymous.
There is no need to close Privoxy if you wish to use your news
client or whatever. These programs are totally transparent to you
once they are running.
The best news is, these programs are much faster than the old
hand rolled system of choosing multiple proxies. In the previous
version of this FAQ I had recommended JAP. Tor in conjunction
with Stunnel and Privoxy is much faster. In fact it seems at
least on a par with the fastest SSH host service I have come
across. But far superior in terms of anonymity and especially so
because it is free. The only service you now need to sign up for
anonymously is your news provider.
Full setup instructions for these programs are offered in Part 2.
31. Is the data encrypted after it leaves the remote
server and Tor?
Yes, provided you are using Stunnel. The only precaution you must
take to ensure both privacy and anonymity, is to ensure you use
Stunnel in combination with FreeCap. More about this in Part 2.
32. How do I subscribe anonymously to a news provider?
Obviously never ever use a credit card. You can either send cash
or some may accept E-Gold. Privacy.Li offer a proxy service on
your behalf to sign you up themselves to your choice of news
provider. They offer their own service but at present it does not
allow a secure (SSL) connection right into the news server.
I believe there are now at least 4 news servers offering Stunnel
encrypted connections through port 563. These are: Easynews,
Newscene, Maganetnews, and Octanews. There are also remailers
that accept a Stunnel encrypted connection, which significantly
improves your Email security. More about this in Part 2.
Privacy.Li will act as a proxy, in this case meaning they will
sign you up anonymously to your choice of news povider, or indeed
any other service you wish. They accept many types of payment,
including cash and E-Gold.
E-Gold is not intended to be anonymous. But provided you sign up
using your choice of details and (most importantly) immediately
disable the security protocols which sense your IP address, you
should be Ok. If you don't you may find your access blocked. With
anonymous access from different IP addresses using Tor, it is
very important to do this.
33. How do I create a secure/anonymous Email account with
Quicksilver?
I recommend creating a Nym. To do this you should first of all
finger (download) a copy of the Nym help file. Quicksilver will
do this for you if you go to finger on the menu and input
help@nym.alias.net. Read it carefully before attempting to create
your own Nym. Once you have decided on your course of action, use
the Quicksilver Nym Wizard to help you create a Nym. It is quite
involved because of the necessary procedures that have to be
negotiated with Nym.Alias.Net (often called NAN). After sending
in your create request, you will receive an Email asking you to
confirm receipt. This is to prove your reply chain back to your
normal Email address is working. After you have sent the
confirmation you should receive another Email telling you, your
Nym is alive and active.
Of course you can use Yahoo or Hotmail, but I consider them only
soft anonymous. But they can be hardened by socksifying your
connection using Privoxy and Tor. More about how to do this in
Part 2.
34. Can you briefly summarise all the above?
You need PGP and Quicksilver for your Email and DCPP and/or
Truecrypt for encryption of your hard drive. These recommended
Programs should help you achieve a very high level of plausible
deniability and privacy.
You need to be anonymous online. To achieve this you need to
follow the suggestions that follow in Part 2. Most importantly
You must subscribe anonymously to your choice of independent news
provider.
Part 2
35. What programs should I get?
There are seven programs recommended for security and anonymity:
DCPP, PGP, TrueCrypt, Stunnel, FreeCap, Privoxy and Tor.
And three others recommended for Email, Usenet and Web browsing:
Quicksilver, Agent and FireFox.
In all cases where there is a choice of download, ensure you
download the version that is compliant with your operating
system, e.g. Windows XP or whatever.
36. Should I just download them all right away?
It depends. If you are wanting to show reasons why all your
connections to your ISP are secure, then by all means download
them all and install them onto your Drive C. If not, wait until
you have created your secret hidden drive and only then install
them onto that drive. Meanwhile, you must download and install
DCPP at this time. Install DCPP onto your Drive C (and your Drive
D when it is dual bootable). Its presence need not arouse
suspicion, provided you follow the instructions further down the
FAQ.
DCPP: http://www.drivecrypt.com
37. OK, I have downloaded and installed DCPP, what must I
do next?
Create a second bootable drive on say, Drive D. You must
immediately defrag this drive, reasons later. Now install all
your programs and defrag after each one is installed. Finally
restore all your data from My Documents or wherever. This is your
honeypot data that is there to be discovered as backup data to
your regular Drive C.
Do a final defrag before proceeding further.
38. How do I achieve maximum plausible deniability?
You must have two separate bootable drives. Drive C is your
regular drive, it need not be encrypted. Your second bootable
Drive D is the one we shall concentrate on.
Run DCPP on this Drive D. Install Boot authentication first.
Before re-booting create an Emergency Repair (ER) floppie disk.
Test both Boot Authentication and your floppie allow you to boot.
Now encrypt your Drive D. Immediately after this encryption
process has finished and before re-booting, update your ER disk.
This is vital.
Next you use DCPP to clone your operating system. This is where
some care is required over the size of the passphrase. At this
stage use a relatively simple one of around 8 characters per
line. Reasons follow.
39. So far, so good. What now?
The first encrypted drive (Drive D) is your honeypot encrypted
partition containing data you are prepared to reveal. The second
(hidden) boot partition is your truly secret one with a different
passphrase. Now you must encrypt that second cloned operating
system. As soon as it is done, update your ER disk. In fact I
suggest making a pair.
When booting you can input either passphrase and boot into either
the honeypot encrypted drive or the hidden operating system
drive.
Clever, very clever. Superb plausible deniability.
Or is it?
What happens when an attacker finds that the dates of all the
files in the first partition have never been opened perhaps for
months?
Read on.
My justification for this scenario is that Drive D is an
encrypted backup of my Drive C. It is encrypted to minimize the
risk of it being corrupted should my computer catch a virus. When
dismounted (closed), my encrypted drive will be shown by Windows
to be unformatted. As such, Windows will not normally write to
it. Thus it offers a layer of security that should I lose all of
my Drive C, I can recover by booting into my encrypted Drive D. I
am not going to argue the fine print here. This is my
justification for having encrypted my Drive D. If there are
viruses which can cause Windows to format Drive D, so what? I
will argue I am ignorant of such things.
"Yes, the files do show I never use it. That is because I
have never yet had need to. It is there as an encrypted backup
for the day when I do need it. Being encrypted Windows cannot
read or write to the drive (unless it is mounted, of course).
Thus the drive is a safe haven if I am attacked by a nasty
virus".
This is your explanation for this drive and the fact the file
dates are old.
If doubts are raised they are impossible to prove without
correctly guessing your second passphrase. Even if your attacker
convinces you he knows DCPP offers the possibility of a hidden
partition there is a plausible defence. See further on.
Of course after installing DCPP onto Drive D and creating a
hidden encrypted partition, there is no need to bother about
encrypting your Drive C. In fact I would go even further and
suggest there is no further need for Boot Authentication. This is
needed to encrypt Drive D, but can safely be removed from within
Drive C after the event. Of course, it is axiomatic that you
first create and test one or better several Emergency Repair (ER)
disks to allow future access.
For security at least one of these should be stored offsite.
40. Is it as straight forward as this?
Not quite. After creating the first encrypted partition on your
second hard drive you have to avoid a couple of slight bugs. I am
sure that they will be addressed, but for now a little care is
required.
After the first installation and encryption of your honeypot
drive, you can then create a clone of this drive within the same
partition. Naturally and essentially you choose another most
secret passphrase. This is where I found the first small bug. You
must defrag your drive completely before you proceed. I had two
very large blocks of data separated by around a gigabyte of disk
space that windows considered defragmented, despite my repeatedly
telling Windows to defrag. But DCPP told me there was
insufficient space to clone the operating system. This with over
50 Gigs of free space! This is what I have learnt from Shaun
Hollingsworth (the program's Author):
"Defragmentation is a problem. Last week I did some work on
a windows based "consolidation tool" and managed to
move all the files to the start of the drive, BUT windows 2000
and Windows XP, WILL NOT allow any folder data to be moved!! Even
the offical "diskkeeper" style defragger won't allow
this, and it DOES NOT SHOW any folder data, in the white space
area. My test machine, ended up with nothing but folder data, at
the end of the drive, yet it wouldn't show up anything visible on
DiskKeeper (XP standard defragger)."
This is a concern. To get around this, I re-formatted the second
drive and started over. Immediately after installing Windows I
defragged the drive. I did this after each program was added. By
this ruse, I managed to get Windows to tightly pack everything.
Actually not quite true, there were a few gaps, but thankfully
DCPP ignored these. From what Shaun has said, above, we know that
Windows can write folder data all over the place on your drive.
These do not necessarily show up when defragging, causing DCPP to
(correctly) report there is insufficient space to clone.
Shaun has suggested one work around is by using Norton's Ghost to
backup the to-be-encrypted partition and then to restore. He
tells me this will ensure all data are then packed together at
the start of the drive.
However, another little bug raised its head when I tried again to
get it to clone. I found that the password input screen DCPP
displayed before it would clone only allowed a shorter passphrase
to be input. There is no error as such, just that DCPP tells you
it has found the keystore but cannot open it because either it is
corrupt or it is the wrong passphrase.
Tests showed it was not a corrupt keystore, therefore the culprit
logically had to be the passphrase input screen, which indeed was
the cause of the problem. I expect that shortly this will be
addressed.
However, as long as this bug remains, it offers you the chance of
further plausible deniability. See further on.
As this passphrase was used to create the second (and secret)
keystore for the cloned operating system, I had to go back and
create it over with a shorter passphrase. I would strongly urge
you not to store this second keystore on your honeypot encrypted
drive. I suggest creating and storing it on a floppy. Later after
creating/updating your ER floppies, you should completely destroy
the floppy. This ensures this critical keystore was never put
onto your honeypot drive.
Note: There is no requirement to keep a copy of this keyfile. If
at any future date you wish to decrypt this clone or the original
you can use the ER disk recovery tools to do so.
The finding of a second keystore on your honeypot drive will
totally destroy any attempt at plausible deniability. Or will it?
On second thoughts, perhaps not. You could create a false
keystore, one with a long (and different) passphrase to suggest
you have been attempting to create a hidden drive but had failed.
You can prove this is feasible because of the above bugs. Using a
very long passphrase will prevent the creation of the clone. If
your are told this is a known bug (perhaps from reading this
FAQ), you act surprised and insist it is the first you know of
it. Who can prove otherwise?
After you have cloned your drive, it then needs to be encrypted.
This might sound a little strange as you have just cloned an
encrypted drive, but it makes sense if you think it through. This
is essential. Before doing so, change the shortened passphrase
you used to create this cloned drive to something far stronger,
meaning far longer.
When booting you choose which passphrase to input. Either the
honeypot encrypted drive passphrase or more likely the hidden
drive with your ultra secret data within it. Or, you can just
boot into your normal plaintext Drive C for non critical use.
It is absolutely essential that no further data are added to your
honeypot drive at the risk of destroying altogether your hidden
drive. This is no idle threat. To (slightly) help in this regard,
when about to clone the operating system, you are offered a
choice of spacing between the two partitions, input at least 200
megabytes or more for this gap space.
I would recommend that you initially test out both passphrases.
But use your honeypot passphrase just once to test it works ok.
Never again use it at all. Windows is a very pro-active operating
system and it will do things you may not be expecting. Things
such as automatic backing up of the registry, defragging, etc.
Everyone must have noticed how their drive can sometimes be very
active when they are not doing anything. This is Windows doing
its thing. So mount once to test, then forget all about it. But
do not forget the first passphrase, it may be your credibility
lifeline.
41. Any more hints about this system?
You could remove Boot Authentication off your computer. Do this
only after creating a couple or more Emergency Repair (ER) disks.
You can now create a proper boot floppy or even an IMA file which
can be used with Nero to create a bootable CDROM.
I notice that Drive C is still required to boot either of these
encrypted partitions. So I recommend investing in significant
quantities of RAM and switching off the pagefile. Just in case
Windows decides it wants to write anything to your normal drive.
42. What about those other files: PGP, TrueCrypt,
Stunnel, FreeCap, Privoxy and Tor, Agent, FireFox and
Quicksilver?
Obviously all future downloads should be into your hidden drive.
Get them here:
PGP: http://web.mit.edu/network/pgp.html
or: http://www.panta-rhei.dyndns.org/do...pgp658ckt08.zip
TrueCrypt: http://www.truecrypt.tk/
Stunnel is used for NNTP secure connections to your news
provider.
Stunnel requires the executable file plus 2 others.
Stunnel: http://www.stunnel.org/download/binaries.html
stunnel-4.05.exe stunnel-4.05.exe.asc (digital signature file
optional but recommended)
OpenSSL Libraries (required files):
libssl32.dll libeay32.dll
libssl32.dll.asc (optional) libeay32.dll.asc (optional)
FreeCap: http://www.freecap.ru/eng/?p=index
Privoxy: http://www.privoxy.org
Tor: http://www.freehaven.net/tor
Not essential, but strongly recommended:
Agent: http://www.forteinc.com/main/homepage.php
FireFox: http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox
Quicksilver: http://www.quicksilvermail.net
43. Where do I put these files?
PGP should be installed onto your hidden operating system. It may
offer to install onto your Drive C. Avoid that unless you want to
deliberately offer a sanitised version on your Drive C.
Actually there is good reason to install all of the above onto
your Drive C. this may sound alarming, but consider, their
presence might be deduced if any snoop has been monitoring your
ISP data. It will always pass across as encrypted data. If an
examination of your hard drive were to show the absence of such
programs, how do you show how you were doing it? The presence of
these programs is not illegal at all. On the contrary, there are
very good and sensible reasons why you want to avoid both spam
and having your privacy invaded.
TrueCrypt should be installed only onto your hidden drive. This
program should not be openly displayed. Its presence is best kept
hidden. The plausible deniability it offers, if you choose to use
it, is strengthened by its absence from your system.
For the other files, create a new folder called Proxy. Open Proxy
and create the following sub-folders: FreeCap, Stunnel, Privoxy,
Tor
Install by copying all of the downloaded files into their
respective folders. Ensure the library files for Stunnel are in
the same sub-folder. The latest version of Tor now includes a
Windows install. This means it now install the Torrc file in
Documents and Settings by default, so there should be no further
error messages about a missing configuration file.
Each program can then have shortcuts made and placed on your
desktop, or wherever you choose if different.
44. How do I configure Privoxy?
Privoxy is used for HTTP secure connections to the Web. It works
in conjunction with Tor. The config.txt file looks daunting, but
you just remove # from the beginning of any line to make that
line active.
Scroll down to section 5.2 in config.txt
Copy and paste the following line:
forward-socks4a / 127.0.0.1:9050 .
Simply add it exactly as shown. The spacing and the period at the
end are important.
By default it will run on startup and minimize to the task bar.
45. How do I configure Stunnel?
Stunnel is required for an NNTP secure connection to Usenet.
Copy and paste the following in Notepad and save it to a file
called stunnel.conf in the Stunnel folder.
# config file for connecting to your secure news server client =
yes [nntps] accept = 119 connect = yournewsserver.com:563 # end
of config file
Substitute the news server name given you by your news server
after signing up with them. Whatever it is, add a colon ( and 563
for the port number, with no spaces.
This file does not exist until you create it. Stunnel cannot work
without its presence. You will just get some server error. This
might happen if you or Windows names it wrongly.
You may need to get Explorer to show extensions to known file
types, otherwise Windows may save the file as stunnel.conf.txt.
If you are not sure, go to Tools > Folder Options > View
> uncheck "Hide extensions to known file types".
Click on Apply, Ok.
This is the only configuration you need for Stunnel.
46. How do I configure FreeCap?
FreeCap is easy. First of all go > File > Settings >
Default Proxy. Type 127.0.0.1 into the server window and 9050
into Port. Click OK.
With the program back at the opening screen, drag and drop the
Stunnel shortcut into the FreeCap open space. You will
immediately see the Stunnel icon position itself along the top of
the screen. Good. You have socksified Stunnel. That is all it
takes. Whenever you run Stunnel you must start it by clicking on
it from within FreeCap.
Socksifying secures the program and ensures it routes data over
an encrypted connection socksified by FreeCap and into the Tor
network.
Note: Some may experience problems with FreeCap. If you do, an
excellent free for non-commercial use alternative (but not open
source) is SocksCap. It is here:
http://www.socks.permeo.com/Downloa...nload/index.asp
47. How do I configure Tor?
Nothing to do. Just click on its shortcut and watch the green
screen. Wait a few seconds for it to create its onion route
across the Net. Once this is enabled it will display, "Tor
has successfully opened a circuit. Looks like its working."
Minimize the program and that is it for Tor.
48. How do I configure my Browser?
To ensure your browser chooses this route you must now go to its
Proxy settings Window. With FireFox this is > Tools >
Options > Connection Settings.
Input 127.0.0.1 into each line except Socks Host. Leave that line
completely clear. Input 8118 into the Port window for each line,
but again leave the Socks Host line clear. This is because
Privoxy listens for connections on port 8118 by default. Remember
we have already configured Privoxy with the line: forward-socks4a
/ 127.0.0.1:9050 . This is telling Privoxy to pass on its
connections to Tor which is listening on Port 9050 by default.
49. How do I configure my news client?
You must now configure your news client by inputting 127.0.0.1
into the window which asks for your news server name. If you have
never used a proxy prior to this, go to the screen displaying
"News Server". In Agent 1.91 this will be Options >
User and System Profile > User. Enter 127.0.0.1 for the server
name. Click OK. The port is set in the Agent.ini file to 119. But
do not change that. Stunnel has already been configured to listen
on port 119 anyway and to forward through port 563.
Note: Stunnel can only be used with a news provider that offers a
secure (NNTPS) connection by default on port 563. For other news
providers, I suggest omitting Stunnel and socksifying (by
dragging and dropping into FreeCap) the Agent shortcut. Not
nearly as secure as your data will not be encrypted after it
leaves the Tor network on its way to the News provider.
Each of these four programs, Stunnel, FreeCap (or SocksCap),
Privoxy and Tor accepts connections from either your Web browser,
into Privoxy and on to Tor, or from your News client into
Stunnel, socksified by FreeCap and on to Tor, again.
Many programs can be socksified. But it must always be the final
one in the chain, the one immediately prior to Tor that should be
socksified.
50. How do I test these are all working?
Let's check the Web first.
Start Privoxy (which by default starts with Windows).
Open your browser and input: http://p.p/
You should see the Privoxy main page with the following:
"This is Privoxy 3.0.3 on localhost (127.0.0.1), port 8118,
enabled."
If you see that, be assured you have accessd via Privoxy.
If you see "p.p. could not be found, please check the name
and try again." You are definitely not accessing via
Privoxy.
Go back through the above and check everything very carefully.
Note: This is an internal test, not via the Web. It just proves
that Privoxy was invoked to display that page from its own
folder, which you will see displayed if you click on "View
and change the current configuration"
You will then see a clear display of all the configuration
settings.
Do not change anything unless you have a backup file and know
what you are doing.
Let's assume your Web browser is functioning as it should and you
see the p.p. page displaying the confirmatory message.
You should now test your news reader client.
51. How do I test my news connection is anonymous?
Open FreeCap and click on the Stunnel icon in the FreeCap Window.
It is imperative that Stunnel be started only from within FreeCap
and thus be socksified. Otherwise it will simply connect directly
with your news provider. Certainly it is a secure (encrypted)
connection but totally useless from an anonymity point of view.
If the news provider logs connections, you have just destroyed
your carefully built up anonymity for ever. The news provider
will have logged your true IP address! A painful lesson.
Without opening Tor at this stage, start your news client. As a
small precaution ensure you are in an appropriate newsgroup and
attempt to download its headers. You should see connecting to
127.0.0.1 displayed on the lower taskbar in Agent or wherever in
the version you are using, followed by error reported by Winsock
driver. Good. This proves Stunnel was attempting to connect to
Tor, which is of course offline, thus no connection was possible.
Now start Tor. Try again. Hopefully this time you will have more
success and it should connect to the news server and start
downloading headers.
Go to a multimedia goup and start to download a large file. While
the download is in progress, close Tor. You should see an
immediate error about connection to server closed unexpectedly.
Good.
Re-start Tor. Re-establish the connection with the server and
start over. This time close FreeCap. Notice the download will
continue. Do not panic! It is still accessing via Tor. Prove this
for yourself by closing Tor and notice the download again stops
immediately and there is the same Winsock error. Good.
If you have got this far, you have succeeded in creating a secure
and truly anonymous network connection for both your browser and
your Usenet posting/downloading.
52. Can I post binaries anonymously to Usenet with this
system?
Absolutely. If you choose to use Agent, it will always use your
news provider as the posting host. This is why I recommended you
subscribe anonymously to this news provider. Nothing can then be
traced back. If you are into heavy posting then you should use
Power Post or something similar that allows you to choose whole
folders of files for posting.
If you use Quicksilver for posting to Usenet it will always use
one of the mail2news gateways. All data from your desktop is
encrypted through to the first remailer and then on through the
Mixmaster remailers and onto Usenet. The one and only down side
is that the anonymous remailer network does not readily accept
large files, such as binaries. Do not try and post as
attachments, better to write it into the body of the message, if
possible. But it is considered bad form to use the remailer
network for binaries. The remailer network is intended for text
files.
To post binaries, use Agent or Power Post or similar and post via
your socksified Stunnel and Tor.
A warning: If you post illegal material, you may find your
anonymous account closed without warning and no possibility of
any refund!
53. OK, I can now surf the Web and browse Usenet
anonymously, but what about Email?
I recommend Quicksilver. To socksify Quicksilver it is necessary
to ensure that the port you intend using is enabled in both Tor
and the SMTP remailer. There are presently no Tor exit servers
with port 25 enabled, which is the default SMTP port. This is
because of previous abuse. So to sendmail using Tor we have to be
a bit clever and use a non-standard port for SMTP. This port
needs to be one that is acceptable to both the Tor exit server
and to the chosen remailer. Actually this is not strictly
correct. It is possible to acces a hidden service on Tor whilst
using port 25, but I found some problems. So to keep things as
simple as possible here is my chosen solution. There may well be
several routes to achieving this. I offer the one that I have
been successful with. By all means experiment with other
remailers and ports if you wish.
First a couple of perhaps obvious things. The following is to
enable secure (encrypted) anonymous sending of Email via the
Panta-rhei remailer and to receive Email via the Banana-split
remailer. It is possible to use either for both purposes, but I
prefer not to let my left hand know what the right hand is doing,
so I split them. For maximum security I strongly recommend
pointing your Nym reply block to a newsgroup, such as
alt.anonymous.messages. You can set up Quicksilver to download
all the messages in this group and to search through all these
downloaded messages for your chosen subject, which identifies
your mail.
The reason for downloading all messages is to prevent analysis of
your downloading habits possibly identifying which messages are
specifically for you. By using the banana-split hidden service
this is very difficult anyway.
Quicksilver will then automatically decrypt these messages for
you (after you have input your passphrase).
This sounds daunting, but believe me it is not. Just a little
effort reading the Quicksilver help file/manual and you will be
up and running in no time at all.
Note: There are many services offering so-called anonymous Email.
Be very wary of them. Only the remailer network offers truly
anonymous sending and receiving Email. Even this service is
fraught with likely hazards if not used correctly. But at least
you are in control and not some unknown admin who may or may not
have your best interests at heart.
54. Why is the remailer network so secure and anonymous?
Although not perfect (nothing is), it does offer a level of
anonymity well above and beyond what simple anonymous services
(such as Hotmail) offer. It uses the Mixmaster remailers and has
protocols to ensure your Email is very difficult to trace and
decrypt. Remember, by using Quicksilver in the following
recommended way, you are not just using Mixmaster, but also using
Stunnel encryption which with SocksCap then sends all data
through the Tor network and then on to a hidden service.
And all this is before the message is sent on through the
Mixmaster remailer system!
Mixmaster is the type II remailer protocol and the most popular
implementation of it. Remailers provide protection against
traffic analysis and allow sending email anonymously or
pseudonymously.
Mixmaster consists of both client and server installations and is
designed to run on several operating systems including but not
limited to *BSD, Linux and Microsoft Windows. It does not use
PGP, but RSAREF with its own keys and key formats.
55. How do I configure Quicksilver?
First of all you need to create a default template in
Quicksilver.
Go > Templates > and choose any existing template. Copy and
paste the following:
Fcc: outbox Host: www.panta-rhei.dyndns.org From:
somebody@anybody.else Chain: panta,*,*; copies=2 To:
Subject:
Save this as a template, naming it Panta-sendmail or whatever.
Now go > Tools > News Accounts > New > put 127.0.0.1
into the News Server box. Clear the Login ID and password boxes
(unless you are choosing to use your regular news provider, in
which case you must enter your user name in Login ID and your
password in the Password box). Click "New".
Enter the name of the news group, e.g. alt.anonymous.messages and
the subject line you chose when creating your reply block. If you
cannot remember it, go > Nym Wizard (the shades at top right
on menu) Modify an Existing Account > Next > > >
until you reach the screen displaying your reply block. Just copy
and paste the subject line into the correct window and your done!
56. How do I configure Stunnel?
As you have already configured Stunnel for your regular news
provider it is possible to use the same settings in Stunnel with
Quicksilver to receive the Email that your Nym has (hopefully)
forwarded to alt.anonymous.messages. Superior anonymity is
achieved by using a hidden service, such as that offered by
Banana-split. This is also a secure connection using Stunnel and
ensures that your Nym is not associated with your news provider
user id. If this is your choice you should create another folder
called, say, Stunnel-2. Copy the existing files in your existing
Stunnel folder to Stunnel-2. Now open this copy of stunnel.conf
and copy and paste the following in place of what is already
there:
#Bananasplit/Panta configuration
client = yes
[BANANA_NNTPS_563] accept = 119 connect =
tyrndfbdb2x6g3vg.onion:563 delay = no
[Panta_TLS_MAIL] accept = 25 connect =
www.panta-rhei.dyndns.org:2507
Create a shortcut to stunnel.exe in the new Stunnel-2 folder.
Drag and drop this shortcut into the FreeCap window. To avoid
confusing these two Stunnel icons, I suggest right clicking on
them and choose "Modify" and re-naming them to
something that will easily distinguish between them, such as
Meganetnews (if this was your regular news provider) and Panta or
Banana or whatever. When you want to use Usenet, you choose the
Meganetnews icon (or whatever you chose to name it). When you
wish to check or send Email, close the first Stunnel (by right
clicking on it on the taskbar) and open the second one. Easy.
If you wish to continue using your regular news provider, then
simply copy and past the following and add it to your existing
stunnel.conf file:
[Panta_TLS_MAIL] accept = 25 connect =
www.panta-rhei.dyndns.org:2507
This will allow secure and anonymous posting, avoiding your
existing ISP SMTP server altogether. In fact it should be
impossible for your ISP to even know you are sending or receiving
Email. Better yet, even Banana admin cannot know what you are
doing, as you are contacting a hidden service. But this is just
the start of the journey your Email will travel before it reaches
its destination. True anonymity.
Note: You can use banana-split for Usenet posting and
downloading, but it offers just 24 groups! Thus best kept for
your Email only.
57. In previous revisions you have recommended using SSH
and a remote host server, why not in this revision?
Because it is slower, less secure and costs money. There are free
host servers around, but why bother when there are the likes of
Panta and Banana?
58. Surely all this is totally over the top for the
majority of users?
It is certainly over the top for 99 per cent of users for 99 per
cent of the time. If, however, you are the one in a hundredth and
you do not much like the idea of being at risk for 1 per cent of
the time, then no, it is not over the top at all.
In any case, using these tactics helps create smoke which in turn
helps protect those who really do need all the protection and
security they can get.
Remember this FAQ is intended to help many different people. Some
may be living in deprived conditions, in countries where human
rights abuses are a daily fact of life.
59. Can I use IRC/ICQ/Yahoo/MSM in this way?
No idea. I rarely use instant messaging and then only with a few
friends in plain vanilla. You can use a program called Trillian.
There is now a Pro version which will allow an encrypted
conversation between a group and even allows file exchange (I
believe). I have only used the beta version, text only. It
appears to do all they claim for it. Both parties need to be
using Trillian for the encryption to be effective. You can use it
as a stand alone, but it will not then support encryption.
Trillian is here: http://www.trillian.cc
It might be possible to socksify Trillian. If so, then yes this
could be a very useful way to be anonymous on IRC (Internet Relay
Chat).
I am sure there are other ways to achieve this, but I am sorry
this is beyond this FAQ. My knowledge is limited because I have
never tried it myself.
60. Why not use MS Internet Explorer instead of FireFox?
MSIE is a dangerous program designed by MS to allow remote
servers access to your computer's registry. Although designed for
use by MS to allow easy updating of the Windows Operating System,
this feature could be used by any site to access your IP address,
even your machine ID and your personal registration details or
worse, far worse, your saved passphrases. This can be done even
if you have logged onto a site through a chain of proxies. In
other words Microsoft Internet Explorer is an absolute no-no as
far as anonymity is concerned.
As alternatives, I have already mentioned FireFox and Mozilla.
61. What about backing up my Data?
Although not strictly relevant to a FAQ mainly concerned with
privacy, nevertheless, this is so important a few words are
needed.
Create another encrypted container using DriveCrypt 4.2 on an
external hard drive. Open this partition and copy some innocuous
data from your normal plaintext drive. Now close this container
and create a hidden container, following the instructions in the
documentation that comes with DriveCrypt. Now copy all your
secret data across into this secret container. Restoring is just
as simple. Just open the secret container and copy into your DCPP
partition.
TrueCrypt can be used by creating an encrypted partition at the
end of the drive. Follow the TrueCrypt help files on how to make
this part of the drive appear as unformatted and without a drive
letter to Windows. All your secret data can now be copied into
this TrueCrypt partition.
62. Lastly, what do you say to the charge that this FAQ
may be useful to criminals?
I did take time to have a re-think after the events of 9/11.
However, on balance I believe it is still the right thing to do.
Like gun control, if we ban weapons only the police and criminals
will have them. Banning encryption or anonymity is not going to
make criminals stop using encryption or attempting to be
anonymous.
It is almost laughable for anyone to be so naive as to believe
that passing any law would make the least difference to a
criminal. I believe that the individual should be allowed to
choose, not the Government on his behalf.
Who benefits the most if Governments are allowed to reduce our
freedom of choice? The Government or us?
Those that give up a little freedom to gain a little security
will lose both.
This ends the FAQ.
Here is my PGP key and fingerprint:
Fingerprint: F463 7DCB C8BD 1924 F34B 8171 C958 C5BB
To contact me, please post to news:alt.privacy with the subject
"Att: Doctor Who" (without the quotes) or send
encrypted mail to my Nym: doctor_who@nym.alias.net
Links to items specifically mentioned or recommended in the FAQ:
PGP: http://web.mit.edu/network/pgp.html
or: http://www.panta-rhei.dyndns.org/do...pgp658ckt08.zip
DCPP: http://www.drivecrypt.com
TrueCrypt: http://www.truecrypt.tk/
Putty: http://www.tucows.com/preview/195286.html
or here:
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~...y/download.html
Stunnel is used for NNTP secure connections to your news
provider.
Stunnel requires the executive file plus 2 others.
Stunnel: http://www.stunnel.org/download/binaries.html
stunnel-4.05.exe stunnel-4.05.exe.asc (digital signature file
optional but recommended)
OpenSSL Libraries (required files):
libssl32.dll libeay32.dll
libssl32.dll.asc (optional) libeay32.dll.asc (optional)
Privoxy: http://www.privoxy.org/
Tor: http://www.freehaven.net/tor/
Quicksilver is here: http://quicksilver.skuz.net/
Mixmaster (required by Quicksilver and Jack B. Nymble):
Kremlin: http://kremlinencrypt.com/download.php
Wipeutil: http://short.stop.home.att.net/freesoft/filutil2.htm
Windows Washer is here: http://www.webroot.com
pecunix is here: www.pecunix.com
e-bullion: www.e-bullion.com
DMT/ALTA: https://213.132.35.90
E-Gold: http://www.e-gold.com
Privacy.Li: http://privacy.li
Agent is here: http://www.forteinc.com/main/homepage.php
Norton's A/V is here: http://www.symantec.com/index.htm
Zonealarm: htttp://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/home.jsp
Other links that might be of interest:
JAP: http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/desc/encr_jap_en.html
SSL Proxy info: http://www.jestrix.net/tuts/sslsocks.html#intro
WinHex: http://www.winhex.com/winhex/order.html.
ACDSee: http://www.acdsystems.com/english/products/acdsee/index
Thumbs Plus: http://www.cerious.com
VuePro: http://www.hamrick.com
A Proxy site listing: http://www.samair.ru/proxy/
News Providers: http://www.exit109.com/~jeremy/news/providers/
Freenet: http://freenet.sourceforge.net/
Trillian: www.trillian.cc
Nym remailers:
nym.alias.net, home page: Http://www.lcs.mit.edu/research/anonymous.html
Anon.efga.org, home page: http://anon.efga.org/
In case you need convincing:
http://www.gn.apc.org/duncan/stoa_cover.htm
Useful programs:
Partition Magic: http://www.powerquest.com/
FSRaid: http://www.fluidstudios.com/fsraid.html
HJSplit: http://www.freebyte.com/hjsplit/
Mastersplitter: http://www.tomasoft.com/mswin95.htm
PowerPost: http://www.cosmicwolf.com/
Quickpar: http://www.pbclements.co.uk/QuickPar/
SmartPar: http://www.smr-usenet.com/tutor/smartpar.shtml
WinAce: http://www.winace.com/
WinRAR is here: http://www.rararchiver.com/
YProxy is here: http://www.brawnylads.com/yproxy/
Media Player Classic: http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/
Some anonymity sites:
http://www.worldnet-news.com/software.htm
http://www.skuz.net/potatoware/index.html
http://www.skuz.net/potatoware/jbn/index.html
http://packetderm.cotse.com/
http://www.cotse.com/refs.htm
http://freeyellow.com/members3/fantan/pgp.html
http://www.all-nettools.com/privacy/
http://Privacy.net/
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/3969/gotcha.html
http://www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/links.html
http://www.skuz.net/potatoware/privacy.txt
Other additional useful sites:
Beginner's Guide to PGP:
http://www.stack.nl/~galactus/remailers/bg2pgp.txt
PGP for beginners:
http://axion.physics.ubc.ca/pgp-begin.html#index
FAQ for PGP Dummies: http://www.skuz.net/pgp4dummies/
The PGP FAQ: http://www.cryptography.org/getpgp.txt
The SSH home page: http://www.ssh.com/products/ssh/
Anonymous Posting:
http://www.skuz.net/Thanatop/contents.htm
Anonymity Info: http://www.dnai.com/~wussery/pgp.html
Nym Creation:
http://www.stack.nl/~galactus/remailers/nym.html
General info:
http://www.stack.nl/~galactus/remailers/index-pgp.html
Revision 20.2