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Revision 133 - (show annotations) (download)
Tue Aug 13 23:36:44 2002 UTC (10 years, 9 months ago) by rabbi
File size: 8457 byte(s)
Added instructions on announcing public remailers.

This README needs to be heavily reviewed...
1 Mixmaster version 3 -- anonymous remailer software -- (C) 1999 Anonymizer Inc.
2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3
4 PREVIEW VERSION --- WARNING: THIS SOFTWARE IS UNDER DEVELOPMENT!
5
6 This program consists of
7
8 * a remailer client:
9
10 The remailer client supports sending anonymous mail using Cypherpunk
11 and Mixmaster remailers, managing pseudonyms at Newnym nym servers
12 and receiving mail anonymously from Cypherpunk remailers. It supports
13 OpenPGP encryption (compatible with PGP 2, PGP 5 and up, and GnuPG).
14
15 The client can be used with a menu-based user interface and with
16 command line options.
17
18 * a remailer:
19
20 The remailer supports the Cypherpunk and Mixmaster message formats.
21 It can be integrated with the mail delivery system of Unix-based
22 computers or use the POP3 and SMTP protocols for mail transfer.
23 Mixmaster includes an automated abuse-handling system.
24
25 Please report any problems via the bug and patch trackers at
26 http://sourceforge.net/projects/mixmaster/
27
28 [Note: The final release of Mixmaster 3.0 will include the improved
29 Mixmaster protocol version 3.]
30
31
32 Installation:
33 ------------
34
35 Libraries:
36
37 Mixmaster uses the cryptographic library OpenSSL. If you want to use
38 the menu-based user interface, you also need the ncurses library. If
39 these libraries are not installed on your system, get them from
40 ftp://mixmaster.anonymizer.com/ and extract them in the Src
41 directory first.
42
43 The Perl Compatable Regular Expressions library can be obtained from
44 ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programming/pcre/
45
46 The zlib compression libraries can be obtained at
47 http://www.gzip.org/zlib/
48
49 To install or upgrade Mixmaster, type `./Install'.
50
51 Mixmaster uses lists of currently operating remailers and information
52 about their reliability. You can get the current remailer lists from
53 http://stats.melontraffickers.com/ and http://anon.efga.org/ and via
54 finger from nym.alias.net:
55
56 pubring.asc Type 1 remailer keys
57 pubring.mix Type 2 remailer keys
58 rlist.txt List of reliable type 1 remailers
59 mlist.txt List of reliable type 2 remailers
60 type2.list List of known type 2 remailers (optional)
61
62 If you wish to participate in the Remailer Abuse Blocklist, you will need
63 to obtain the blocklist file from http://www.paracrypt.com/remailerabuse/
64 and place it in your Mix directory. This may be automated with cron.
65
66 For support for multiple RAB services, edit the file Src/config.h manually,
67 and add additional block files to the existing line, such as:
68
69 #define DESTBLOCK "dest.blk rab.blk rab2.blk rab3.blk"
70
71 Note that only the first file should the the local block list, as it is the
72 only file mix will open for writing. Most users will not need to edit
73 config.h.
74
75
76 Using the remailer client:
77 -------------------------
78
79 To use the menu-based user interface, simply run `mix'. To send an
80 anonymous or pseudonymous reply to a message from within your mail or
81 news reader, you can pipe it to `mix'.
82
83 The interactive mode supports sending mail, manages pseudonymous
84 accounts at nym servers and contains a simple mail reading function.
85 OpenPGP messages are encrypted and decrypted automatically. It can
86 also decrypt messages encrypted to ordinary non-anonymous OpenPGP keys
87 if you use the same passphrase for the nyms as for the OpenPGP key.
88
89 In the non-interactive mode, Mixmaster reads a message from a file or
90 from its standard input. The command line options are described in the
91 manual page (mix.1).
92
93
94 Mixmaster as a remailer:
95 -----------------------
96
97 The Mixmaster remailer can be installed on any account that can
98 receive mail. Non-remailer messages will be delivered as usual. If
99 you have root access, you may want to create a new user (e.g.,
100 `remailer') and install Mixmaster under that user id.
101
102 The Install script provides a simple way to set up the remailer. More
103 information about configuring Mixmaster can be found in the manual
104 page. Typically, incoming mail is piped to "mix -RM". In a UUCP
105 setting, it may be useful to use just "mix -R", and run "mix -S" once
106 all messages have arrived.
107
108 Announcing a new remailer to the public is most commonly done by posting
109 the remailer keys and capabilities to alt.privacy.anon-server as well as
110 the "remops" mailing list. Information about the remops list can be found
111 here: http://lexx.shinn.net/mailman/listinfo/remops
112
113 To upgrade from a Mixmaster 2.0.* remailer installation, make a
114 backup of your keys and configuration files before you run Install.
115
116
117 Installation problems:
118 ---------------------
119
120 In case one of the libraries Mixmaster uses is installed incorrectly
121 on your system, place the library source code (available from
122 ftp://mixmaster.anonymizer.com) in the Src directory, remove the old
123 Makefile, run the Install script again and answer `y' when asked
124 whether to use the source code.
125
126 The ncurses library can use termcap and terminfo databases. The
127 Mixmaster Install script tries to find out whether terminfo is
128 available. If you get a "Can't open display" error when starting
129 the Mixmaster menu, run "./configure --enable-termcap; make lib/libncurses.a"
130 in the ncurses directory.
131
132
133 Security notes:
134 --------------
135
136 The ciphers and the anonymizing mix-net protocol used in Mixmaster
137 correspond to the state of the art (see the Security Considerations
138 section of the Mixmaster Protocol specification for details). However,
139 no security proofs exist for any practical cryptosystem. It is
140 unlikely that their security will be broken, but there is no "perfect
141 security". Software can also contain implementation errors. The
142 complete Mixmaster source code is available for public review, so that
143 everyone can verify what the program does, and it is unlikely that
144 security related errors or secret back doors in the software would go
145 unnoticed.
146
147 No software is secure if run in an insecure environment. For that
148 reason you must make sure that there is no malicious software (such as
149 viruses) running on your computer. Deleted files and even passphrases
150 can in many cases be read from the hard disk if an adversary has
151 access to the computer. The use of disk encryption programs is
152 recommended to avoid this risk.
153
154 Anonymous messages are secure as long as at least one of the remailers
155 you use in a chain is honest. You can use up to 20 remailers in a
156 chain, but reliability and speed decrease with longer chains. Four is
157 a reasonable number of remailers to use. Many remailer operators sign
158 their keys. You should verify those signatures with OpenPGP to make
159 sure that you have the actual remailer keys.
160
161 Anonymous keys usually cannot be introduced to the OpenPGP web of
162 trust without giving up anonymity. For that reason, this client will
163 use any OpenPGP key found on the key ring, whether it is certified or
164 not. Your key ring must not contain any invalid keys when used with
165 this program.
166
167 If you want to use a pseudonym, the client will ask you for a
168 passphrase to protect the nym database. Your passphrase should be
169 long, and hard to guess. Anyone who gets hold of your nym database and
170 private keys and can determine the passphrase will be able to
171 compromise your pseudonymous identities. Note that some operating
172 systems may store your passphrase on your hard disk in clear.
173
174 While a good client passphrase can protect your keys if someone gets
175 hold of your files, the remailer passphrase offers only casual
176 protection for the remailer keys. If you install a remailer, the
177 remailer passphrase must be different from your private passphrases.
178
179
180 Copyright:
181 ---------
182
183 Mixmaster may be redistributed and modified under certain conditions.
184 This software is distributed on an "AS IS" basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF
185 ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the file COPYRIGHT for
186 details.
187
188 A license is required to use the IDEA(TM) algorithm for commercial
189 purposes; see the file idea.txt for details.
190
191 Mixmaster uses the compression library zlib by Jean-loup Gailly and Mark
192 Adler, the free ncurses library and the regex library by Philip Hazel.
193 This product includes cryptographic software written by Eric Young
194 (eay@cryptsoft.com). This product includes software developed by the
195 OpenSSL Project for use in the OpenSSL Toolkit (http://www.OpenSSL.org/).
196 For some platforms: This product includes software developed by the
197 University of California, Berkeley and its contributors.
198
199 All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
200
201 $Id: README,v 1.5 2002/08/13 23:36:44 rabbi Exp $

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